“I’ve already run all the standard blood tests. Both you and the girl are abnormally healthy. Comprehensive metabolic panel functions were all good, CBC was normal. The variation seems to be isolated to the blood cells themselves, but doesn’t seem to be affecting any function that we can tell.”
“So you can see the variation on a slide? What are your thoughts on it? Have any similar documented cases been found?”
Alric suddenly remembered the vision he’d had the night of his twelfth birthday. His fingers tightened around the vial.
Vividly, an image of himself and six others standing with wings rising from their backs flashed through his mind, followed by a vision of the child.
He forgot to breathe. A wave of dizziness washed over him, but this time he knew it had nothing to do with his physical state.
“Alric, are you alright? That food should be here soon. Did you hear my answer?”
Expelling the breath he had been holding, Alric blinked at the tech. “What?”
Makar pulled a chair over and sat down. “I ran a basic scan through the healthcare database, but I didn’t really know what to search for.”
Angel blood. Alric stared at the blood inside of the tube, thought about the bones on his back. He saw again the wings rising. There were different numbers, vibrant colors, all of them brilliant and unique.
The scientist in him rejected it. Angels did not exist. The scholar in him reminded him that angels were spoken of in the Bible. His human mind rejected that explanation. Angels were not human, were they? And, he couldn’t be one. He had been born on earth. Angels weren’t born at all, at least he didn’t believe so.
“Your nourishment,” Raul groused, plopping a tray down beside Alric.
Carefully settling the tube of blood into its slot, Alric picked up the spork on the tray and began to eat. He was hungry, but he also wanted the distraction to give him time to process.
Angels did exist. One was present every time he saw Eitan. That was proof. They were also constant in his visions.
Alric’s spine straightened. His mouth parted. Did he see them because he was one of them?
“Are you sure that you’re alright?” The tech was questioning him again. Alric wished he were alone so he could take the time he needed to sort out the rampant thoughts in his head vying for analysis.
“I’m not feeling... very stable,” he said truthfully.
“He’s supposed to be working,” Raul snapped at the tech. “No one cares how you feel.” The last was directed at Alric.
Makar frowned at Raul. “I’ll watch him. You can go.”
Raul rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I’m not a babysitter anyway.”
“Finish your food,” the tech encouraged after Raul had exited. “I’ll take you back to your room and you can start tomorrow after you’ve gotten some rest.”
Chapter Sixteen
In the lab the following morning, Alric looked around for gloves, finally spotting a box set into the wall. He pulled a pair free and selected a vial of blood. Makar had done his reading and drawn his blood while he’d eaten breakfast and the tubes were waiting for his inspection.
The night before, Alric had been taken back to his cell and had found it had been modified. A flat slab now protruded from a wall like a desk, and a chair sat before it.
Another section had clear panels added from floor to ceiling that contained a toilet, sink and shower head.
Alric had been glad for the modifications, finding comfort in the familiar items. The necessary toiletries had also been provided, and Alric had crawled into the bed feeling clean for the first time in a while.
He hadn’t slept well, too full of musings to find much rest. The grogginess clung to him as he pulled a pair of gloves on and dug around for a dropper, finding one in a drawer.
Gathering the supplies he thought he might want or need, he put them within reach and then settled at the counter in front of a microscope.
Selecting a slide, he placed a smear of blood on it and slid it into place on the microscope base.
Alric studied the sample closely, yawning awkwardly while he tried to keep his eyes against the ocular lens. He twisted the diopter adjustment to achieve better focus.
Alric leaned back. “Where is the girl’s blood?”
Makar rolled his chair over the floor and took a tube from a rack, and prepared a slide for Alric.
Alric sat back, slid left and prepared another sample of his own blood. He adjusted the magnification on the microscope higher to see the monolayer better.
“Do you want another of hers?”
“I’d like to rerun the standard tests, if you don’t mind. Start at the beginning. I don’t want to miss anything. Running a full spectrum will allow me to document, and then go over my notes and give me a better idea of what I’m looking at.”
Makar was nodding his approval. “I’m fine with that. Thoroughness means you have the big picture. I could run the same tests so I’m not bored, if you don’t mind? Never hurts to have two results.”
Alric wasn’t sure why the man was being so accommodating. His manner was far more pleasant than Raul’s. There was no demon clinging to the man. Nor an angel around him. It was possible he had a potential ally beside him.
He nodded. “You’re right. Let’s proceed then?”
They were able to work undisturbed throughout the morning. Occasionally Alric noticed they were being watched through the square pane window on the lab door. He didn’t recognize the face and assumed it to be a guard.
Eitan appeared with Raul in the afternoon. Makar had ordered lunch for both of them and they had just finished eating.
“Have you made any progress?” Eitan asked without indulging in a greeting.
Makar spoke before Alric could. “Alric suggested that, in an effort to be as complete as possible, we should run a wide spectrum of tests to be sure nothing is missed. We’ve been working on those.”
Eitan’s eyes narrowed.
Raul crossed his arms. “Sounds like he’s stalling to me.”
The air wavered. Alric blinked a few times. The light dulled and, for a few seconds, the scene shifted. Makar was slumped against the wide open lab door, a bullet hole through his forehead. Beyond him, a man lay on his back in a pool of blood.
As quickly as the vision flashed it was gone. Alric opened his mouth, closed it, hesitant to speak.
This was real, Alric told himself. What he was seeing right now was real. He wasn’t sure about the rest. “I’ll need some time,” he answered. “I have some theories, but seeing the broad spectrum will lead to a concrete answer.”
“I want him to examine the girl,” Eitan stated. Alric knew it was a command, despite the wording. He also wondered if Eitan had thrown it out because Alric had nothing to offer as yet about the blood.
Raul protested immediately. “There’s no reason for that.”
Eitan looked at him coldly. “Did I ask for your opinion?” He kept his gaze on Raul without flinching, and Raul squirmed under the diminishing gaze.
Eitan pivoted and led the way to the door. Makar tapped his arm and Alric realized he was meant to follow. The man he had seen through the window of the lab door accompanied them.
He was excited about Eitan’s order. He was very curious about the girl, eager to meet someone who could possibly be his family. He fully intended to do a DNA test to determine if they were a familial match.
Door number eight slid open and admitted them into a viewing area just like his. He’d taken but a step inside the room when a force slammed into him, a wave of power that crumpled his knees. Makar caught him, calling out to Eitan, who turned to catch his other arm to hold him up.
Dizzy with the emanating waves coming from the inner room, Alric slowly lifted his eyes to the viewing window. Every movement felt weighted, time suspended and slow. It wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling, rather he felt drowsy and content, warmed by the force.
Just inside of the window she stood, her eyes dir
ect and unblinking as she looked straight at him. Alric’s spirit cried out with joy. His soul felt like it jumped from his body to meld and unite with hers, a reunion that he hadn’t realized he’d been seeking until now.
His bones burned pleasantly. A fluttering caressed the bone growths, soft as a feather, and if he hadn’t been supported by Eitan and Makar he would have reached back to feel.
Alric wondered if wings had just been given life to begin to grow. Unrealistic, he derided himself gently, shaking his head to try and clear it.
He realized the guard was panting, as though he had been running. Swinging his head to look at the shaking man, he felt great compassion and a lessening of the press of energy.
Raul was whimpering behind them, unintelligible words tumbling from his mouth. Alric watched him for a few moments, feeling strangely detached from any sort of feeling for Raul. Raul’s demon was wrapped about his waist, whimpering exactly like the man he clutched.
Alric was beginning to feel like he was on fire. Not burning, but warmed from the inside out. He looked back at the girl, feeling a surge that made him feel incredible.
She blinked once, her lips curving slightly. Behind her, angels suddenly appeared, like lights being turned on, filling the room, a haze the color of fire surrounding each one of them.
“What do you see?” Eitan asked quietly.
He couldn’t tell them. He refrained from breaking out in praise, from laughing.
He cast another look around. Eitan was the only one standing fully upright on his own. Makar seemed a bit unsteady, but mostly unaffected.
The guard mistook Eitan’s question as meant for him. “Her,” he stuttered. “I want to leave. I feel like I’m dying.”
“Go then,” Eitan ordered.
The guard did not hesitate, fleeing the viewing room.
Alric did not understand the guard’s words. His soul felt alive.
He wanted to be closer to her. Locking his knees and straightening his back, Alric stood tall. His limbs were trembling, but not from fear. From power. Awe. Anticipation. His spirit was telling him that something miraculous and supernatural was happening.
He looked again at Raul, whose whimpers were becoming sobbing screeches. Alric arched a brow at Eitan in question. “What’s wrong with him?”
Eitan heaved a long sigh. “He is weak. I’ll have to kill him now.”
Momentarily, a prickle of shock dulled the shell of his warmth. He blinked at Eitan. “For having a breakdown?”
“He is too weak to continue in his placement. That will not be tolerated.”
Not knowing what to say, Alric looked back at the girl. The smile that had curved her mouth was gone. Her eyes were full of sadness. He felt a pull of sorrow from her soul, his own mirrored it, and he understood. Raul was lost to the Kingdom of Heaven. He had chosen evil.
The hazy faces of the angels gave him no understanding of what they knew or felt. They, like the angel that was always with Eitan, were perhaps the guardians of the girl. He wondered if he had angels that followed him that he could not see.
“Only Makar seems able to care for her. No others have yet been able to stand in her presence.”
“Or this happens?” Alric asked, indicating Raul’s huddling form without looking at him.
“A curiosity, isn’t it?” Eitan acknowledged.
“You don’t seem to be affected. Can you go inside?”
Eitan slanted a look at him, and Alric realized he would not answer. If he acknowledged aloud that he also was unable to enter the room, then he too would be perceived as weak. This was a consequence that Alric was sure Eitan could not afford.
Would he be able to enter, he wondered? The girl nodded at him and he was sure that she had heard his silent question.
“Why do you want me to examine her?”
“It is a strange coincidence that you both share similar… skeletal structuring. Ask some questions.”
Alric wasn’t about to verbalize his questions in a place that was monitored. He had many. He wasn’t sure if Eitan was using his scrambler.
Eitan and Makar released him. Eitan pressed a button and the door leading into the inner room slid open. Alric stepped forward, his heart racing. He could feel the power of the angels pushing into him as he stepped inside, but knew that he needed to remain upright.
He was quite sure that Eitan was a believer. That was his best explanation for the angel that was his constant companion. It was curious that Eitan could not enter the room. The angels surrounding the girl indicated the same about her, despite her age.
Perhaps Eitan had fallen away. It was not Alric’s job to judge. He believed and prayed, but wasn’t sure he would consider himself to be one of God’s children. Not with the choices he had made that had led him to the place that he was in.
She came to him immediately upon his entry, holding up her arms. Startled, Alric slowly reached for her and lifted her small body into his arms.
Tightly, she clung to him and he wondered if, despite her apparent fearlessness, she was terrified of the things happening in her life as he was of his own.
Alric had little experience with children. There had been some younger kids in the orphanage, but they had kept mostly to their own wing.
The foster homes he had spent time in had all had older children, with the exception of one, and he had done his best to avoid interaction with anyone at that one.
The little girl didn’t seem to care about his inexperience at all. She laid her head on his shoulder and was still. Alric was at a loss, but was comforted by the feel of her arms around him.
She seemed content to just stay there, but he was aware that Eitan was watching. Probably others as well. It might be good that she was bonding with him. Or they might perceive it as bad.
He allowed himself to stay as they were for a couple of minutes before he took her to the bed. “They want me to look at your bones,” he explained as he set her down. “I have them too, did they tell you that?”
She nodded and spoke. “For the grace of God we shall unite.”
Her answer gave him pause. He was not sure how to respond. His skin still felt flushed with heat, his mind tumbling with questions, his heart colliding with emotion. It was hard to focus on what Eitan had told him to do. He just wanted to talk to her.
“Are they hurting you?”
“Who can compare our own suffering to how Our Father suffered?”
Alric stood still as he processed her words. He wondered if she could see her angels. They were there still, filling the room. He felt as though he were standing in them. It was welcoming, like finding the place where you belong.
She sat quietly, watching him with chocolate-topaz eyes. Alric wanted to stay in her presence forever.
Re-focusing on her answer, he hoped it meant that they weren’t hurting her. She seemed alright.
He bent over her and lifted the hem of her shirt at her back to see the bones. He wasn’t quite sure what they wanted him to look for. Like his own, her bones pressed up beneath her skin, the outline clear and curved.
Her first set began just below her shoulder blades, but unlike his which slashed down slightly, hers were curved downward toward her spine, like the bottom quarters of a circle, and separated by a few inches.
Three sets mirrored each other down her back, leading to her seventh bone, a long span above her waist that curved upward at the edges. He had the same formation along the center of his back. Curious, Alric ran his fingers lightly over the bone’s middle, searching for the subtle joint that he had at the center of his. He found the same on hers.
“When did you get your bones?” Alric questioned, letting her shirt fall back into place.
“I was born with them.”
Sitting down beside her, Alric processed the information. “I wasn’t. I was older than you are.” So far, no one had questioned him about his bones. He was sure that they would. He wanted to ask her thoughts about the other five from his vision, but there was no way he w
ould allow Xis to have that knowledge. Knowing there were more of them out there would put the others in danger, if they weren’t already.
If he was even right. He still hadn’t worked through his analysis.
“Some things are only explainable with time,” the little girl told him and he jolted, wondering again if she could hear his thoughts. Looking into her captivating eyes, he knew that while she appeared young in age, her mind had far surpassed her age. She seemed so at peace, despite her circumstances.
He had to find a way to get them out. This girl could not remain under Xis’s control. She was special. He could feel it with every pulse of his heart. Alric lifted his eyes toward the viewing window, praying that Eitan was who he hoped he was. If anyone had the power to free them, it was the man who seemed to be his ally.
“That’s enough,” Eitan spoke into the room.
Alric rose. “What’s your name? They just keep calling you ‘the girl.’”
“Eve.” She motioned for him to come closer and Alric bent. She reached up to tug his face close to hers and whispered in his ear. “It is nice to finally meet you, Alric.”
Chapter Seventeen
Alric stared at the white wall across from him.
He’d never given a thought to the monotony of captivity. It gave one plenty of time to think. Makar would arrive soon to take his blood. He had not seen Raul in a couple of days. He wondered if Eitan had followed through on his threat and the man was dead.
The day before, Makar had taken x-rays of his bones. He had been efficient and not unfriendly, but Alric had not asked any questions.
After leaving Eve, he’d felt depleted. Like he had left a part of himself behind and needed it to function. He craved the way he felt in her presence. He thought about every word she had said over and over.
He and Makar had continued their blood testing. Makar had been handling the daily reports, and documenting the specifics so it did not seem as though they had been idle.
Alric had spent a lot of his time recently lying on his back talking to God. About Eve, about his visions. It was obvious to him that she contained something that he did not, and he wanted it. She knew peace. Alric wasn’t sure he had ever even understood it.
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