by Lynn Landes
“Hardly, Varena” Hunter says “You have the beautiful glow of a woman carrying new life. When is your baby due?”
Her smile fades. “I don’t know. A few weeks I think.”
A frown appears on Hunter’s face, “Have you been to a doctor?”
“I was seen by the birthing woman,” she tells them laughingly and moves around to a stool. With a quick toss of her hair she continues, “They said the baby was due in a few weeks, and if I am lucky I would live long enough to see it take its first breath.”
Alex drops the bowl he is drying on the counter, causing her to jump in fear. “I’m sorry; I am not used to being with people. Forgive me,” she asks with her arms around her belly protectively.
“You will not die, Varena,” Alex tells her. “Will she, dad?” Now agitated Alex states, “You’re a medicine man, you can help her.”
Hunter looks at her. He sighs because he knows what happens when his son brings home a pet. Glancing at Rusty laying at her feet, he smiles. “You have no idea what you have gotten yourself into, Varena,” he tells her.
Alex walks off, upset, and she watches him go. “I am no one’s pet” she responds softly looking back at Hunter.
“I didn’t say that. I thought it,” Hunter responds to her. As he walks around the counter, he stands in front of her by the bar and looks into her hazel eyes. “What other gifts do you possess?”
With defiance in her eyes, she looks at him and says, “I am a Child of Light, one of the last surviving from our village. Only my God knows the extent of my abilities,” Varena says simply. Alex returns carrying Hunters medicine bag.
“The best thing for all of us right now is food and rest,” Hunter says when he notices how she tenses and begins wringing her hands together. “Alex, I know you mean well, but Varena will make those decisions later, when she is ready.”
Noting the serious look in his father’s face, Alex nods his head in understanding. “Okay, I’m starved. Let’s eat.”
Varena relaxes through dinner and laughs at Alex’s stories. She finds she is able to eat more than she thought. Insisting on helping with dishes, she is amazed by the dishwasher and stands in awe as they show her how it can be loaded. They try not to laugh when she opens it and closes it again and again.
Alex calls Varena to get her attention, “Hey Rena, check this out.”
In her mind she hears him calling her. “Rena, I am Shadow. Have you forsaken me?”
Hunter is there first, catching her before she hits the floor. Picking her up, he carries her into the backroom and Alex follows with his medicine bag.
“Get a cool cloth, son, and a glass of water.” He places the rag on her forehead, then takes her pulse, and then listens to her heart. He locates the baby’s heartbeat, and props her feet up for a few minutes, relieved when the color returns to her face.
“Varena, you are safe now.” She hears his voice calling to her, and she forces her eyes open.
A tear slips free and she looks at him. “I thought he found me, Hunter. I thought he found me. I am sorry I scared you. I’m so tired. Is the baby okay?” she asks clutching at her belly protectively.
“With your permission I would like to listen.” Hunter takes out his stethoscope and looks for a fast heartbeat. He listens carefully and finds it. “Would you like to hear your baby, Varena?”
Wonder fills her eyes. “Oh, yes, please!” He shows her how to hold it, and then he watches as she meets her child. Varena’s face lights with joy, she says, “Thank you.”
“My turn!” Alex says barely able to contain himself. He squats down by the bed, to listen and then asks in all seriousness, “Why is it so fast. Is that normal?” Hunter reassures them and they laugh when the baby kicks the scope, making Alex jump. “Wow, I guess he is telling us to leave him alone!” After laughing together, she yawns and Hunter decides to make her rest.
“Enough excitement for one day, you need to sleep.” After he puts away his gear, he urges Alex out of the room. “Varena, you are safe and protected here with us. Try to get some sleep.”
As she watches them leave, she says a prayer thanking her father for sending them to save her, and then falls into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Hunter paces outside in the living room as he an Alex try to figure out what to do next. “Tell me how you found her, son.” Then he listens quietly as Alex tells him. Sitting down in shock, he looks at his son, speechless for a moment. “You went WHERE? How is that possible, Alex. How did you know you could do it?”
With a shrug of his shoulders, Alex answers him, “I just followed the image in her mind.”
Stunned and feeling a little out of his element, Hunter tells him “We need to rest. Don’t make any plans. Alex, tomorrow you are going with me to meet Polly and the Keeper.” As he watches his son walk away from him, he worries for all of them and wonders what the repercussions of this choice will be.
Varena wakes early after a silent sleep and listens for sounds from the house. Wearing her dress from the day before, she folds the borrowed clothes and leaves them on the bed. Taking the scroll, she tucks it into the pocket of her dress. She hears no sound as she moves downstairs, so she heads outside to the deck and sees Hunter greeting the morning with prayer. Quietly she sits beside him and closes her eyes, lifting her face she greets the day. Hunter smiles when she joins him and peace fills his heart at the sound of her voice greeting God in prayer.
“Dear Lord, I thank you for the grace of being alive this morning, I thank you for the sleep that has refreshed me. I thank you for the chance to make a new beginning. Help me in all I do and say today, and when the day is over bring me home safely. Amen.”
Alex sits quietly listening from the kitchen, and is more determined than ever to keep her safe.
Twenty
Elina is in the living room at Polly’s starting a fire in the fireplace and laughing at the look on Malach’s face as she tells him, “This is how you start a fire, Malach.”
“A ridiculous waste of time,” Malach tells her with a small smile. He refused to leave her while Raphaim was close and she was not complaining. She loved her time with him.
“The demon said he had his hands on you, Elina. You will tell me what went on sooner or later.”
Glancing at him, she smiles, “He caught me at a vulnerable moment, but I handled it. Besides, he is not the first man to put his hands on me.”
Malach jerks her around to face him; he starts to say something, but is interrupted by Polly.
“Jake left a message for you. He took Elsbeth with him to visit a friend named Lucas. He said you knew who that was?”
With a look at Malach, Elina sees the question on his face. “Lucas was in the cave in Afghanistan when they were attacked. I wonder what that is about? Did he say anything else?”
Polly looks at her and says, “Nope, just that he would call later.” The sound of a truck on the driveway draws Polly to the window. “It’s Hunter. Oh, he brought Alex! I wanted you to meet him. This is great.” Walking quickly to the front door, Polly calls out for Ruby and Ronnie to come into the living room. “Come meet Hunter’s son, Alex.” Ruby drops the dishtowel and they hurry into the living room together.
Alex jumps out of the truck calling out, “I will walk Rusty before we come in.” Hunter walks in the front door with Varena behind him. Malach stands, feeling her presence before they see her. Staying close behind Hunter, Varena clutches for his hand and immediately feels his calming presence. He looks back at, her he nods in encouragement and she steps from his side into the light, but does not release him.
Elina turns from the fireplace dusting her hands off and goes still. Blue eyes wide in shock, she steps forward, and hazel eyes find hers.
“Rena?” she whispers. Varena was not sure how she would feel at the sight of her friend. She feels her heart call out sister, and they rush to each other laughing and crying at the same time.
“How is this possible?” Elina asks looking at Hunter. Smiling he
stays protectively close to Varena, handing her a tissue. Introductions are made and then Malach steps forward.
When she sees the angel, Varena begins screaming in her mind. Elina reaches for her friend to reassure her when Alex explodes into the room and forms a protective shell around Hunter and Varena. The blast blows Elina back into Malach’s waiting arms.
Glowing eyes meet and Malach pulls Elina behind him, protecting her with his wings. Polly watches, and Ruby and Ronnie stare frozen afraid to move.
“Cease!” A deep voice calls out from behind them.
Simeon enters slowly and his wings disappear in an effort to set Varena at ease. Malach does the same and Elina shoves at Malach’s back. Moving aside, he allows her to see. Varena has stepped into Hunter’s protective embrace and Alex stands before them with his powers humming. He has not dropped his shield and he begins to levitate off the ground. The panic he felt in Varena causes a fluctuation in his power and it becomes volatile.
“Come forward Daughter of the Light, and meet your brother, Hemana,” Simeon says. Elina’s knees buckle and she stares at the young man in front of her. “What?” multiple voices cry out in unison.
“I can’t control it!” Alex cries out. As she feels the ripple of power expand and build, Elina does the only thing she can think to do. She leaps for him and ports them outside. Immediately they find themselves by the stream, and Alex is struggling to hold onto the power.
Elina instructs him, “Let it go Hemana, focus it on the stream.” His power explodes from him, causing a blast of epic proportions. The stream becomes a river and he falls forward exhausted from the effort to hold on.
Dropping down beside him, their eyes meet. “My name is Alex.”
Elina cries with joy, she touches his face and shares with him their final goodbye. Alex sees her younger face holding him, crying and whispering goodbye then a flash of blue light and she is gone.
“I would have taken you with me if I could, Alex. I was hunted and you needed to be protected.”
“No regrets Elina, I have had a great life. My father is awesome and my sister is the Keeper! That explains a lot.”
She stands slowly as she laughs pulling him to his feet. “We better get back to the others before they go crazy with worry.”
Laughing and wet, they port back into the living room and find Hunter standing with a shaking Varena. Malach and Simeon are on the deck talking privately.
Ruby and Ronnie rush forward to greet her. “I’m okay.” Ruby wraps Elina in a towel and they step aside to watch Alex run to his dad.
“What’s wrong, Rena? Are you hurt, If they…” he starts to say but his father wraps his shaking body in a towel, “Easy tiger, sit beside Rena.”
Polly brings a hot cup of tea and places it in Alex’s shaking hands. Varena reaches out and takes his hand. With a glance at Hunter, she says, “I don’t know what to say to him….”
Ruby steps forward and pulls Elina with her. “I can help with that. Link if you want to see,” she tells the others. They hold hands and Ruby uses her body as the conduit, reaching for Verena’s memories. They see her standing in a hut, holding a newborn baby surrounded by people. The baby sleeps, and she hands him to his sister. They watch as Elina kisses him. They feel as her heart breaks in two and then, in a flash of bright blue light, she is gone. All hell breaks loose. Varena runs with her father to the family hut, where they see two babies, and Micah comes in ordering his family to run! They run with Rena clutching a screaming baby in her arms and watch Varena run when her mother tells her, “Protect the Light! He must be protected!” They watch in awe as she runs, protecting him with all she has, then weep with her as she feels them closing in on her. They hear the screams of her mother and brother and feel the panic when she knows they need her. Saying a prayer of protection over Hemana, she places him in the basket and runs.” Breaking off they all are silent, Ronnie takes his wife in his arms and goes to the fireplace to warm up.
Simeon tells them “The part you didn’t see was the angel that flew in and took the child to safety, placing him in the arms of a protector until he is needed. That time is now, Son of the Light.”
Alex stares at them all, and leans forward grasping Varena’s hand. Before anyone can stop him, he takes all of her memories, every last moment of Hell. He falls to his knees weeping at her feet. Hunter drops beside him, trying to comfort him. “You saved me, and you were punished for it.” Alex raises his tear streaked face to hers, “You lost everything! Why, Rena? Why would you do that for me?”
Ignoring all the eyes that stare at her except the eyes of the child in front of her, she cups his face in her hands and whispers, “Because you are a Keeper of the Light, Alex. Without you, all is lost. Without you every human and angel will fall to shadow and the torture I endured will be nothing compared to the hell that will follow!”
Elina glares at the two archangels in the living room and her power begins to hum. She looks at them as she demands, “One of you better explain this to me!”
Malach speaks first, “Elina, I told you once never to think for a moment that you know God’s plan. I am just as dumbfounded as you. Simeon will explain it to all of us.”
Alex wipes his face on his sleeve, rises from the floor, and moves closer to his sister. With a quick surge, his power joins hers and the light emanating from them is spectacular. A glow of bright blue surrounds the Keepers and they look at each other and smile.
“Dial it back, Keepers,” Polly tells them “or we will have unwanted company!” With a small laugh Elina shows Alex in his mind how to slow the flow and cap it until needed.
“You are a fast learner, little brother.” Puffing with pride he looks at Simeon and waits.
Varena steps forward and tells her friend, “It was believed, Elina, that you were the Keeper of the Light. The day you were born the Ketuwah lit, and the village elder shared her vision with us all. My father and yours did not feel that to be all the truth. When Hemana was born, they thought it was possible that he too shared your gifts. The job of the medicine man of our village; my father was to protect you. The day the Mocker attacked our village; your father appeared to mine and ordered him to protect the Light. He didn’t appear to you, Elina. He was ordering the protection of the true Keeper, Hemana.”
Simeon interrupts, “That is only part of the story. You are both Keepers, the first ever born” he says gesturing to Elina and Alex, the second Keeper. “One of you has the ability to reunite the pieces of the book, while the other is tasked with protecting it.”
“Hemana,” Simeon says stepping closer to look at Alex, “you have the ability to strike a name from the book, or add to it. With this gift you can grant redemption or damnation for any soul or angel. It is a power all in Heaven, on Earth, or in Hell would do anything to have. It had to be protected; you had to stay hidden until it was safe.”
Elina whispers “But Simeon, it isn’t finished yet. I have not completed my task…” Looking in horror at her brother, she realizes that his fate is now tied to hers. Stumbling to the couch, she sits with her head down. Malach moves to her side and wraps an arm around her shoulder, feeling her fear and pain.
Ronnie asks, “What book? Why do I feel like I am missing something important here?” Looking up at her father, Elina glances at Malach and knows the time has come to tell them all the truth.
“The Book of Watchers is a book that my people were given to protect. It holds the power to free all the souls in Hell or condemn those who need to be there. It was a gift given to our ancestor for his faith. When our people were being executed, hunted and tortured to get to the book, they broke it up into five parts.” Standing up, she sees the shock on the faces that look at her. “Those pieces were hidden amongst the ten remaining tribes and scattered across the globe. I was tasked with finding and returning the pieces of the book before the Mocker finds them.”
Malach joins her and continues, “The Fallen want to be free to return to Earth and some of the angels in He
aven have begun falling again. They are all set on finding the book. They now know it was broken up, because the Mocker has a part of it. When the name of a Fallen is read aloud they are free, but under the control of the one who calls it. He is building an army of Fallen this way.”
“Why did you not tell us the truth, Elina?” Hunter asks, angry that he was not told the truth.
Alex pulls his towel closer and walks over to join Elina. “What is my part in this?”
Looking at her brother she is afraid to tell him. “I thought if I found all the pieces I could prevent the war from happening, but now I am not sure of anything?” She looks to Malach and her eyes plead with him for help.
Malach pulls her to his side to explain, “Elina was able to retrieve two parts of the book. Three more are remaining and we know one of those is with the Mocker. We have to retrieve that part and we have to keep Alex hidden and safe.” Hunter moves closer to his son, listening in shock.
Everyone is quiet, in shock from all they have heard. “I did not want to put you in any more danger,” Elina tells her family looking around at them; “I wanted to keep you safe.”
Ronnie pulls her close saying, “Of course you did. That’s what a Keeper does.” Ruby joins them reassuring her daughter with a touch and hug.
Varena watches and listens. She thinks of Mark and the scroll he gave her. Could it be what she thinks it is? He said give it to the Keeper, of course! Excited, she jumps up and feels a pop and rush of warm fluid down her legs. Looking in horror at her belly, she is struck by an intense pain. Doubling over, she grabs her stomach and looks at Hunter.
“NO, it’s too soon! I am not ready!” Another contraction strikes faster and stronger and she finds it hard to breath. Everyone begins talking at once, Polly runs for towels and Ruby joins her.
Hunter calmly tells Alex, “Get my medicine bag.” Alex pops out and back in a hurry. Elina rushes forward and grabs her hand in support.
“It’s going to be okay, Varena, I deliver babies all the time” Hunter tells her. They move her to a back room, they strip the bed while Ruby helps her change out of her soaked dress. She finds something in the pocket, Ruby places it on the end table as she rushes out to help. The scroll rolls off the table and onto the floor.