“You’re the Prophet. Aren’t you supposed to know?” I snapped at him.
“I only see in visions. She is a black hole surrounded by nothing, which is why she’s been virtually untraceable by your mother.” He didn’t raise his voice at me though his eyes hardened.
I took a deep breath. “You know, when I was fourteen, and my father told me who I was going to become, I ran away from it. At sixteen all these things started to happen. I set my room on fire. I don’t know how many times. Now I finally get control of everything inside me just to be told I’m this Warden! What does this mean for Wesley? He’s the only thing I care about in this world, and he’s with her.”
“Wesley’s mother was the key. Your mother told you a little about Harbinger blood. Harbingers have this amazing ability to foresee events, give you a sneak peek into the future. Some do it by drawing rapidly in books. They aren’t looking at the drawing; they can’t see anything. In fact, they are just drawing the vision in their head, their own little window into the other side.” He looked out the windshield at the trees. “Did Wesley ever say anything to you about being able to foresee the future?”
How could this man be so calm? I was fighting everything in me not to burst into flames, to control the anger and pain surging through my soul.
Did I even have a soul?
I sat there a moment and tried to think; then it dawned on me.
“When we were first together, he told me that he had been seeing my face for years. I didn’t think much of it at the time.” I swallowed hard.
“Alright, so now that is one more thing I can mark off my list.” He stirred in his seat. “Do you mind if I catch a ride home with you, Dawn?”
“Of course. But may I ask why?” I could feel my pulse pounding in my ears.
“I think it’s time I had a little talk with your mother. Besides, I have shared too much information, and I have a feeling she needs to clarify a lot that I have said.”
“You never answered my question back at the school,” I pointed out as I turned on the ignition of my car.
“Which one?”
“How did you get there?”
“I flew,” he said, before closing his eyes.
We passed the rest of the drive home in silence. The Prophet who called himself Nick snoozed in my passenger seat, leaving me with a thousand questions swirling in my head.
Chapter 6
More Secrets Revealed
“Mom? Mom!” I was frantic. All I wanted was for my mother to second the motion that Nick the flying Prophet was indeed quite crazy.
“Goodness, Dawn, you’ll wake the dead yelling like that!” She came out of her room, rubbing her hands together. When she noticed the man with me, she gave a worried smile.
“Good afternoon, Angie.”
He smiled, and I wondered if she was the first Pureblood he had met face to face. At the same time, I was wondering how he knew my mother’s name.
“Nicky? Is that you?” my mother exclaimed.
I threw my hands in the air and screamed. What the Hell was going on? Why did it always feel like I was the last person to know anything?
“In the flesh!” Nick answered, wrapping my mother in a huge hug, and swinging her in circles while she giggled.
“How’s your mother?” Mom asked when he put her down.
I could feel the frustration percolating in me. I was about to explode.
“Quite well. She sends her love.”
My mother looked at me and grinned. “Dawny, this is Nick Peterson. Mary’s son!”
She said this like I was supposed to remember him from somewhere. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I accidentally shot a fireball at the wall, earning a look of disapproval.
“Mary’s son? As in your sister-in-law?” I asked slowly. I wanted to make sure I was on the same page as them. I didn’t remember this Nick; I remembered a much smaller-framed boy.
“Yes!” she squealed. “You were, what, sixteen the last time you saw him.”
I looked at Nick, who had this guilty expression on his face. He could have told me all of this during our conversation. He didn’t have to be so mysterious to get his point across. If I had known he was family, the whole ordeal would have been much easier to handle.
“Dawn, I didn’t mean to keep the information from you,” he said. “But if you had known that I was connected to that part of your past, I suspect you wouldn’t have talked to me.” Then he glanced at my mother. “Have you had any demons here recently?” he asked innocently.
My mother smiled and blushed. “Yes, but I let him go home to his wife.” She sighed.
My dad had been gone for a few weeks now. I had to admit this was the first time she had probably smiled since he left. There was still some form of magic between the two of them. Maybe they couldn’t be together, but they still harbored strong feelings for each other.
“So why do we get to enjoy the pleasure of your company?” she asked, changing the subject. “Are you on some epic mission?”
“You could say that.” His smile faded.
“Oh.” My mother clearly sensed his seriousness. “I see. What is it that you need? What are you searching for?”
“I think you know why I’m here.” He shot a look at me. “Angie, she has to know the truth.”
“I know, I know.” She threw her hands in the air. “I was just hoping that there would be no need to find her.” She smiled a small, frail smile in my direction. “Remember when I told you that your ascending had begun? The increase in your power and your pull to various levels was extraordinary. Though you cannot control it yet, it looks like you have made your way down the path to the reason you were born.”
“What are you talking about, Mom?” I crossed my arms in fear that I might shoot flames at her if she said the wrong thing.
“I’m talking about your birthright.” She looked at Nick and shook her head at him. “She’s not ready to know yet.”
“She has to know, Angie. She needs to know everything.” He touched her on her shoulder, and she wiped a tear from her eyes.
“What do I need to know?” I groaned with impatience. What was the matter with these people?
I sensed that up to this point I had only been told just enough to give me a basic understanding of what I was. I had always been kept on the outside looking in, with minimal knowledge of who and what I was. I had thought I had it all figured out. All I had to do was choose a side, and I could live a relatively normal life. I was really getting tired of the rules changing like this.
“Your step-father was a Protector,” my mother said, biting her lip. “After your father and I split, I was alone. I needed something that would mask my existence in this world. The Equalizers were after me. The best way to not be Angelina Weathers was to become Angie Peterson. When I changed who I was, they stopped searching for me.” She glanced at Nick. “We didn’t love each other at first; it was all arranged by the church. And in fact, we didn’t love each other in the truest sense until right before he died. Everything had been just for convenience in the beginning. When you moved in, his duties increased. He was overly attached to you.”
“He sure had a funny way of showing it,” I muttered. “So, you’re telling me, that man, who messed around with you your whole marriage was hired to keep you alive?”
I gritted my teeth. I had been living this colossal lie. Everything seemed to have been predetermined. Wesley’s mother knew me before I knew him. Nick was my cousin in one life, but a Prophet in another. Now my stepfather was revealed to be a Protector. Finally, I was a Warden. Whatever that was.
“At first, yes,” my mother answered. She glanced at the floor and then back to her nephew. “So, Nick, what are you? Did you get Protector or Prophet blood?” She didn’t seem to be trying to change the subject. It came across more as her trying to pinpoint what she was up against. Maybe as a way to test the waters, just to see how much she had to tell me.
“Prophet, like my mother,” Nick repli
ed proudly.
“May I see them?” my mother asked, pointing at his back. Her eyes were glistening, and there was a small amount of perspiration on her top lip. She was excited about something.
“Of course!”
Nick took off his shirt and turned his back to us. I caught my breath. This man was handsome. I may have swooned for a few seconds though not in the way that I did when I looked into Wesley’s eyes on my first day of class. Then these huge gray wings burst from his shoulder-blades. He turned around, grinning.
“Pretty amazing, huh?” he asked, stretching them a little.
My mother looked sad for a brief moment, then reached out and touched one of the beautiful gray feathers. Her fingertips lingered on the silky plumes just long enough to allow a single tear to roll down her cheek. I knew she missed having wings, but I hadn’t realized she missed them this much.
“They’re gorgeous, Nicky.” She hugged him around the neck.
“I thought you said that you weren’t immortal?” I protested. I was beyond tired of everyone lying to me. Now that some truths were coming out, I was going to make sure that I got nothing but the truth from this point on.
“I said I hadn’t been here since the beginning of time,” he reminded me. “I earned my wings. It’s not like I was born with them.”
I shot him an irritated glare. A tricky little Prophet he was turning out to be. I wasn’t born with wings either, but in my case, it was because my parents had been stripped of theirs. Another thought struck me. Did this mean that I had a chance to earn them?
“Come on, you two, let’s go to the living room,” suggested my mother with a sigh. “This is going to be a long story, so we might as well make ourselves comfortable.”
Nick put his wings away and returned the shirt to his back. I have to admit, for a second, I was disappointed.
He shot me a glance from the corner of his eye.
“Like what you see, demon girl?” he teased.
I glared back at him.
“Have no fear, you won’t get your claim on me,” he mentioned.
I turned to follow my mother to the living room. This cousin of mine was going to drive me crazy.
****
“When I first met Greta and Greg it was the day your father and I were banished,” my mother told me. “They took us in and gave us a home until we were able to get on our feet. Thankfully, your father had several offshore accounts that had built interest over the centuries he wandered the Earth looking for souls. So, we have always done well money-wise.”
She cleared her throat.
“We bought a house with cash, thinking that we would be able to stay there forever. We didn’t realize that we were not the only non-humans on Earth. I don’t think you realize how hard it was to grasp the idea that there were other creatures like us in this world. We were never told about them, at least in nothing more than ghost stories.”
I scowled at my mother. I knew exactly what she was talking about. I had gone from thinking we were the only ones like us, to finding out there were far more than just us knocking about the place. Let’s not forget I had been stalked by a vampire and beaten by a demon.
“I told you that Greta was already pregnant when I met her. Well, you and Wesley share the same birthday. The difference between you is that you were born healthy, while he was born sickly and premature.” She fumbled with her dress. “I only know this from a letter I received after Wesley was born. It was the only letter I ever received from Greta before we split. Anyway, we entrusted the house to the Jensen’s, allowing them full access to the property. We knew we couldn’t go back, but we had hope that one day you would be able to. Now, I told you I always knew she was special, that she had a gift, but that I never knew what it was. Recently I have been able to confirm her bloodline and establish that Wesley carries the same blood.”
“So, he is just like his mother then?” I asked, feeling my chest tighten. It wasn’t that I hadn’t had the thought on my own; it was the fact that it was confirmed. Wesley was in no way human. He was just as much non-human as I was. You would think this would have brought me some comfort, but you would be thinking wrong: it only brought dread.
“Yes, that would seem to be the case,” my mother said, frowning.
“What about Melissa?” I inquired. If one child had the gene, then wouldn’t a second child share that same inheritable factor? I didn’t know how the blood thing worked between human and non-human, but it seemed plausible. If a child receives half their genes from one parent and half from the other, it was entirely possible that Melissa had the same blood in her veins.
“No, Melissa was fortunate enough to be just a regular girl.” My mother smiled. “Just so you know, Greg didn’t even know until I told him.”
“Makes you wonder if Greta ever knew. How did you find all this out, Mom?” I eyed her suspiciously.
“I have friends in high places; let’s not forget that.” She winked.
“I get it,” I answered. She was always going to have her secrets. Just like each time something happened, and she ran to her room to make a phone call.
“Can I get back to my story now?” she asked sternly. I nodded, and she continued.
“Your father didn’t know what John was when he condemned him to Hell. He had no idea he was a Neutralizer, that the blood was in him. He had no clue either that Miranda had already started the change within John to recruit him for her side. John himself didn’t know what he was if it comes to that. I only found out after I ran into his father at church. He was talking about the unclean mixes, the muddied blood of the righteous and how it needed to be neutralized and any unions declared unholy. Basically, he was saying that mixing of any blood should be prohibited by the church. Those who were guilty must be exterminated. He wasn’t just talking about the holy and the unholy; he meant any blood that was not the same.”
“So, John was raised in a very racially controlled environment?” I queried.
Regardless of how the boy was raised, he was the epitome of evil in my eyes, and I still wanted him dead. Was it wrong that I did not feel that my emotions were wrong? Didn’t I have a reason to hate him?
“He was, yes,” my mother replied. “Which makes it even more interesting that his parents allowed him to be with Krista, seeing how her adoptive parents were different types of blood.” She shot me a sour look.
“Well, that is interesting,” I said.
There was a moment of silence. When my mother spoke again, I jumped.
“So here is my theory on Miranda so far. She has the Neutralizer to take out the Wardens and the Harbinger to make sure that the job is successful. She will not attack until Wesley tells her that the outcome will be in her favor. John is there to make the Warden’s powers weak and unusable, so Miranda can kill them and send them wherever it is she plans on sending them. That is why when you said she wanted to burn Heaven and Hell I panicked.”
“So, what does this have to do with me being a Warden?” I asked cautiously.
“There are four Wardens. I’m sure that Nick has told you about them, how they were the first created. They each hold a piece of their core. When God and Lucifer became aware of your father and mines little tryst, he made it clear what you would be. The only explanation I got when I asked what the element was, was God telling me I would find out when you were older. I prayed for Earth since I so enjoyed the many wonderful things it offered us. I wanted to plant gardens, and have you help me make them grow, and we would be surrounded by beauty.”
“That explains all the gardens we had together in the past,” I said, laughing bitterly.
“Then the day came. I stood in that field, scared to death of what was happening to you. When I told you to release the power, I wasn’t expecting fire. You burned everything in that field to the ground!” She paused to wipe a tear from her eye.
“As if the charred sheets and the flaming curtains weren’t enough of an indication,” I said humorlessly.
“I cou
ldn’t understand how something so powerful could come from someone so small. When you put your hands out and let the power go, it was an amazing sight. From one hand shot the red flames of your father while from your left hand came the white flames you inherited from me.”
“So, the power was balanced.” I felt oddly proud of myself.
“This last year has been the most trying for me, watching the fire build in you. Seeing you fight to control it, has been exhausting. Seeing you engulfed in flames because your emotions were just too much for you, holding your hand on Christmas morning as the fire seared through your heart.” She wiped another tear from her eye.
“There are Carriers, beings who control only one side, in this world. I’m sure Nick has explained it to you. They don’t really protect their element so much as carry it. Half the time they don’t even know what they are. They go about their daily lives wishing to have amazing power without ever realizing that it is already in them, that the itch they feel in their fingertips is really the power wanting to come out and play.”
I stopped her. “So, you are saying that I carry both sides of the flame, that I am, in fact, the Fire Warden?” I was beginning to feel overwhelmed. Could it be possible that I really was this gifted being that Nick had been talking about? I squinted at my mother. “What happens if I die?”
My mother looked at Nick with narrowed eyes. This was not a question that my mother wanted to answer. I could see that for certain.
“If you were to die, the fire would die with you. It would be reborn again only if there were another union between Heaven and Hell and a child resulted from that union. Until then you would sit in Purgatory, waiting for your power to pass to another or, in a few odd cases, to be resurrected by your sisters.” She was struggling to remain calm. “Such unions are forbidden, which makes you the last to be born with the blood of both sides. I’m not saying that it couldn’t happen again, but it would have to be something extraordinary.”
“So, you’re telling me that if I die, I pretty much screw all of humanity?” I said. “That’s quite a responsibility to lay on an eighteen-year-old.”
Smoke & Ash (Wardens Series Book 2) Page 6