Evelyn raised her hand, signaling for more beer.
“I’m still listening,” she said.
“Alrighty,” Cadell replied, smiling. “Scribes keep the family records, do research, and gather intel on the demons and their allies. Their Blessing gives them eidetic memory, the ability to speak and read any language and a truly freaky ability to multitask. Your Aunt Eve is a scribe.”
Evelyn’s eyes brightened in the candlelight. “I was an intelligence officer in the Air Force, and I’ve always had a knack for languages. Does that mean that my path would be scribe as well?”
“Air Force?” Cadell said, making a show of recoiling in chair. “Just what we need, a flying bus-driver. And an officer, too, no less.” He put a finger, gun-like, to his head. “Kill me now!” he added, grinning.
Evelyn smiled back at him. “Hey, I’m the one who’s stuck having a drink with a jarhead. I’ll bet you were a knuckle-dragging, ground-pounding grunt of a noncom, too.”
Cadell raised his beer glass. “To the Air Force,” he said.
“To the Corps,” she replied, raising her glass in return. “So. You said warrior, scribe, mage and healer. Tell me about mages.”
Cadell shrugged his shoulders. “The name says it all. Mages use magic. They don’t throw fireballs or hurl lightning from their hands, though. They can control the weather to a degree, communicate with animals, and do a lot of other things. And they can kind of see the future.”
“Kind of?” Evelyn asked.
“It’s not one-hundred percent reliable.” Cadell answered. “They get glimpses of the future that can be hard to interpret. Most of the time there’s no context, no orientation point, so they can’t always tell how far in the future they’re seeing.
“There are mages out there who are not of the
Blessed. Some of them are powerful, but for normal people, it takes years of training and most of them don’t get really good at it until they’re in their sixties. Magic comes naturally to the Blessed, though. Even young Blessed Mages can be scary powerful. There are regular human bloodlines that are naturally gifted with magic. Helen, my adopted sister, comes from one of those bloodlines. Her ancestors have been mages since the Bronze Age and her family’s blood is saturated with magic.
“Healers are just that. They can heal people with a touch. In a pinch, they can heal from a distance, but that’s really hard on them. They’re also empathic and telepathic.” Cadell concluded.
Evelyn’s Spock eyebrow returned. “They can read minds?”
Cadell nodded. “Yes. Healers are responsible for keeping the Blessed healthy in body, mind, and spirit.”
“But the two of us are seventh children, so we have even more superpowers, right?” Evelyn was grinning now, a spark appearing in her deep-brown eyes.
Cadell chuckled, “I’ve never called them superpowers, but yes, Sevenths come with a few added extras.”
Evelyn leaned closer “Like what?”
Cadell smiled at her enthusiasm. “We have the abilities of all four Blessed castes. We still have a single caste that we belong to, and that caste’s abilities are stronger in us than the abilities of the other castes, but we can do almost everything the other castes can, just not quite as well.”
Evelyn leaned even closer, her elbows on the table. “So you can read minds?” she asked.
“Well, yeah,” Cadell said, “but I only do it in the line of duty. I’ve never really bothered to learn to use any abilities from any caste other than the warrior caste, anyway. I haven’t read you, if that’s what you’re asking.” Evelyn leaned back in her chair. “I suppose I was wondering about that,” she admitted with a shrug.
“It’s okay," Cadell assured her. “It’s a natural question. But reading you for no good reason would be abusing the Blessing, and the Lord and his angels are hard on members of the Blessed who do that.”
“Has that ever happened?” Evelyn asked.
Cadell nodded slowly. “A few times,” he said. “The most recent one was a great-uncle of mine. It happened before I was born, but he was a healer and used his telepathy to seduce women. I was told that he spent seven months in agony inflicted by Uriel himself. After that, his father was commanded by Uriel to kill him with a trueblade.”
“Shit,” Evelyn said.
Cadell’s expression became hard and intense. His eyes bore, laser-like, into hers. “That’s something that you need to understand about being one of the Blessed. All of the powers and privileges come with a price. The life of the Blessed is about sacrifice and service. It takes a level of self-discipline that most people can’t even imagine. We are the Blessed of the Lord, and his angels are always watching us. Because we are the Blessed, we’re held to higher standards than the rest of humanity.”
Evelyn was silent for a moment. “I get it,” she said, nodding thoughtfully. “Is there anything else I should know?” she asked.
“There is one other thing about being a Seventh,” Cadell replied. “We can channel part of our patron angel’s power. When we do, it makes us even stronger than other Blessed Warriors and all the other Blessed Gifts get stronger, too. Our auras burn with angelic fire that really irritates all demons; lesser demons can’t even come near us. It takes a lot out of you, though, so it’s like a nuclear option: it’s only used when there is absolutely no other choice.”
“In case of demon apocalypse, press the red button,” Evelyn said.
“Right,” Cadell confirmed. “I’ve only done it three times, and I’ve never been able to keep it up for more than five minutes. It took me three days to recover from that.” “So what’s next?” Evelyn asked. “For me, I mean.” Cadell tilted his head. “That’s up to you,” he told her. “You have to decide if you’re going to embrace your Blessing or not. If you decide to embrace it, then your family will help you do that. After that, you’ll have to play one serious game of catch-up.”
Evelyn raised her eyebrow again. “What do you mean?”
Cadell looked down briefly, then his eyes found
Evelyn’s again. “Like I told you, most Blessed embrace their blessing when they’re fourteen. I went on my first demon hunt when I was fifteen and that was after being trained from the time I could walk. You haven’t been trained at all. Besides that, I don’t think anyone has ever embraced their Blessing after they were fourteen. I’m not sure of what might happen to you if you do decide to embrace your Blessing. It might hurt you.”
“But I’d be able to do a lot of good, right?” Evelyn asked. “Protect people.”
Cadell nodded. “Yeah, you can protect people. But your also be asking to bring a lot of pain into your life.”
Evelyn sat up straighter. “I’m not afraid of danger.”
“You don’t know the kind of danger we’re talking about,” Cadell said, his voice growing low and harsh.
“You’re a Seventh, and that’s really rare. A couple from a Blessed family having seven kids doesn’t make a true Seventh. True Sevenths are either the seventh son or the seventh daughter. Have seven kids that are mix of boys and girls won’t do it. When you figure in the fact that most Blessed die fairly young, a lot of them before they have kids and it means that you might get one Seventh in a generation. Having two Sevenths born in one generation … that’s just fucking epic.
If you embrace your Blessing, it’s going to send a shockwave through the Trueworld. Every psychic and magical practitioner alive will feel you come into your power, not to mention the alarm bells that will go off in the demonic world. It will be like when Vader blew up Alderaan: ‘A great disturbance in the Force.’ When it gets out that another Seventh has been born into this generation, and that that a Seventh is untrained and unprepared, there’ll be demons coming after you by the dozens.”
Evelyn cast Cadell a sideways look. “So you think I shouldn’t do it, then?”
“That’s up to you,” Cadell replied. “I simply want you to have some idea of what you’re getting into. Don’t just jump into the pool head
first. Find out how deep the water is before you leap.”
Evelyn nodded and downed the last of her beer. “Right. I’ll have to think about it. One more thing before we go back upstairs and see if my aunt and uncle have killed each other.”
Cadell smiled. “What?”
Evelyn clasped her hands together in front of her. “I believe everything you’ve told me about the Blessed, I really do. I just want one more bit of proof. Just to help me wrap what’s left of my mind around it all.”
Cadell’s expression hardened again. “Alright,” Cadell agreed. He put his right hand in the flame of the table’s candle. He stared at Evelyn over the back of the burning hand. Paralyzed by astonishment, she could do nothing but gasp and stare. Cadell eyes glared into hers. His face was passive, almost peaceful. In seconds the odor of burning skin became evident.
The smell shook Evelyn out of her paralysis. She moved the candle to the side and took Cadell’s burned hand into hers, expecting to find the flesh on the palm thoroughly seared. She found that it was blackened, but it was healing before her eyes. As the last of the injury faded, the sigil on the hand glowed briefly.
Evelyn reached over, took Cadell’s beer and gulped the last of it. “Son of a bitch!" she hissed. “Couldn’t you have proved it all some other way? Like read my mind or something? Shit, Cadell, that had to hurt!”
“It hurt like hell,” Cadell confirmed. “But I wanted to show you what life is like as a Blessed. It means a life of being in one kind of pain or another all the time. It means being able to endure that pain.”
Chapter Two
Eve was closing her cell phone as Randal let Cadell and Evelyn back into Eve’s room. “So,” Evelyn said. “Have you two made peace?”
Eve began dialing a number as she spoke. “It’s more like a temporary ceasefire,” she replied, grinning lopsidedly at her brother.
“What have you decided?” Randal asked, stepping toward Evelyn.
Evelyn looked him in the eyes. “I don’t know. You’ve basically just told me that every horror movie I’ve ever seen is real. It’s a lot to take in.” She gestured to Cadell. “Cadell has made very clear how hard being a Blessed is, but it also sounds like I’d be able to do some real good in the world if I took on the Blessing.”
“Well, that decision will have to wait,” Eve said, turning to Cadell. “A friend of mine at Boston University just called. She has something, something powerful that she’s been studying for me. She thinks that she may have some Tainted on her tail.”
“Is she sure?” Cadell asked.
“She’s a sensitive and one of the Hidden, so she’s pretty sure,” Eve replied.
Evelyn let out a long, exasperated breath, “Tainted and Hidden. Two more terms that I should probably know and don’t,”
Cadell chuckled. “Tainted are low to mid-to-level ethereal demons that inhabit human hosts.”
“So they’re possessed?” Evelyn inquired.
“No,” Eve injected. “Possession is violent act, a forcible taking over of human body by a demon. A human becomes a Tainted by inviting a demon to share their body.”
“Why would they do that?” Evelyn asked, horrified.
Eve shrugged. “There are a lot of reasons. Most do it because they think it will make them powerful. It also makes them effectively immortal unless they die violently.” “What about the Hidden?” Evelyn asked. “Tell her in the car,” Eve said as she opened the door. “We need to get to the university. My friend isn’t answering her phone.”
Randal stepped between Evelyn and the door.
“Evelyn is staying here,” he declared.
“That’s up to her now,” Eve insisted.
“No!” Randal pushed Evelyn away from the door.
Cadell stepped between Randal and his niece. “No need to get rough, sir.” Randal bristled, his eyes angry. He moved his left foot back, bent his knees slightly and brought closed fists up in front of him.
Cadell met Randal’s angry stare, seeing that Randal had assumed a fighting stance. “I know what you’re thinking, sir. Trust me. You do not want to go there.” “Stop it!” Evelyn said, stepping between the two men. She stepped close to her uncle and pointed at his face. “Uncle Randal, don’t ever touch me like that again unless you want two broken hands!” She turned to Cadell. “And you, jarhead. If I want your help, I’ll ask for it.”
Cadell held his hands up defensively. “Yes, ma’am,” he replied, unable to stop a slight grin from coming to his face.
“Evelyn, please…” Randal pleaded. “It’s too dangerous. You don’t know.”
“That’s right, I don’t know!” Evelyn spat, suddenly angrier than she wanted to be. “I don’t know because you never told me!” Randal reacted to her outburst as though he had been physically struck. He backed away from her and his body seemed to partially deflate. Evelyn took a deep calming breath. “Uncle, I know that you were trying to protect me,” she said, gently. “But I’m not a little girl anymore and, from what I’ve been told, people need me.” Randal slumped, defeated into a chair. “I promised your mother that I’d keep you away from all of this.”
“You tried,” Evelyn said. “But my mother is gone, I’m an adult and it’s my choice now.”
“Then you need to make it, dear,” Eve said from the doorway.
Evelyn nodded. “I’m coming,” she said, taking her coat from the rack beside the door.
“Evelyn, please…” Randal pleaded.
“I have to go,” she said, turning back to her uncle. “If these Tainted things are there, I want to see them. It’s the only way to know, really know, what I might be getting into.”
“We need to go now,” Eve insisted. Evelyn followed Eve out the door, donning her coat as she did so. Cadell lingered in the room for several moments, allowing the women to get out of earshot. He placed a hand on Randal’s shoulder. “I’ll keep her safe, sir,” he told the dejected man. “If anything happens to her, it will only be after I’m dead myself.”
Passing over the Charles River made an already cold wind positively chilling. The blowing snow formed streaked patterns in the SUV’s headlights as it drove west down Commonwealth Boulevard. Street crews were losing ground to the snow as a new storm came in from the northeast. Traffic was painfully slow as the drivers contended with the increasingly slippery roads. Cadell was no exception as he weaved his SUV through the other vehicles without crashing in the process.
“All right,” Evelyn said from her place beside Cadell, “I think we left off at the Hidden. What are they?”
Eve leaned forward on the back seat. “The Hidden are humans who have seen the Trueworld and understand that evil is always on the move at every level of society. Some are natural-born psychics, some are magical practitioners and some are just normal people who stumbled on the Trueworld one way or the other. The Hidden work in all sorts of occupations and help the Blessed by providing information and equipment or by using their particular skills. We’re going to see Melinda Carver. She’s a psychic and an archeologist, and she’s been with the Hidden a long time.”
“So, the Hidden is like a secret society?” Evelyn asked.
Eve shook her head. “No, more like a loose association, or an underground group. There’s no real organization or hierarchy. They’re just people who know about the demonic threat and want to fight it.”
“What does your friend have?” Cadell asked, daring, finally, to divert some of his attention away from driving.
“A companion to the scroll that you and I retrieved in Afghanistan,” Eve said. “I’ve been trying to read it since we found it. I can read the language, but it’s in code. The scroll that Melinda has may be the key to deciphering it.” Evelyn smiled. “In code,” she said. “That’s why you needed to bring me into the Blessed now. So I could help you break the encryption.”
Eve nodded. “You were an encryption specialist in the Air Force and you were fluent in three languages by the time you were twelve. I’m sure that you and I
can break that code if we work together. The problem was that the scroll is saturated with magic. Your Truesight would have been activated as soon as you came near it, so I persuaded
Randal that it would be better if we brought you into your sight first. I asked Cadell to be there because he’s a Seventh like you.”
“But why right now?” Cadell asked. “That first scroll had been that crypt we found for more than a thousand years. What’s so vital that we have to ram the Trueworld down Evelyn’s throat?”
Eve sat back in the seat and her face disappeared into shadow. “Because I think the scrolls are instructions to finding Solomon’s ring,” she answered.
Cadell chanced another glance away from the road.
“What about the vessel?” His throat seemed to tighten as he asked the questions.
“I’m pretty sure that one of the Nephilim or Grigori already has it,” Eve said, grimly. Cadell took in a long, resolve-gathering breath.
“Shit,” he said. “That about sums up the situation,” Eve confirmed. Evelyn twisted in her seat so she could look at both of her companions. “Okay, one of you needs to tell me why I need to be terrified.”
Upon reaching the university, they made straight for the College of Arts and Sciences building. The hour was late and the streets of the campus were clear of people, save for the unfortunate crew tasked with snow removal. Street lamps appeared like orbs of light suspended in the air as the blowing snow hid their supporting poles from sight. The wind alternately whistled and howled. The temperature was decreasing, making the air seem as though it was actually getting heavier.
“Alright,” Evelyn said, closing the SUV’s door and pulling the collar of her leather bomber jacket tighter around her neck. “What are the Nephilim? I swear, if you people don’t stop it with the obscure vocabulary words, I’ll have to start taking notes just to keep up.”
“Are you up on your Bible?” Eve asked.
Evelyn shrugged her shoulders. “More or less,” she said. “I can’t quote chapter and verse, though.”
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