Choices of Fate (Fate Series) (16 page)

“How can you know that?”

The question prompted Elijah to intervene. “Perhaps it is best if I continue with this part of the story. Ethan was very young when it all happened.” As Elijah began to recount that night, it was almost as if he was back in that place, the home he and his beautiful wife had built, well over two-hundred years ago.

✧

It was late in the evening in a cozy Spanish villa where a seven year old Ethan lay with his head in his mother’s lap as she stroked his overly long wavy hair, softly singing one of his favorite songs in Spanish. Josephine loved to keep his beautiful chestnut locks long, despite his father’s feigned disapproval. Elijah had never been very good at denying his beautiful wife anything she desired, the length of their son’s hair was no exception. Ethan’s eyes began to feel heavy as his mother’s words drifted through his mind.

Amor con fortuna
me muestra enemiga.
No sé qué me diga.
No sé lo que quiero,
pues busqué mi daño,
Yo mesmo m’engaño,
me meto do muero.
Y, muerto, no spero
salir de fatiga,
No se que me diga.
Amor me persigue
con muy cruda guerra
Por mar y por tierra
Fortuna me sigue.
¿Quien ay que desligue
amor donde liga?
No sé qué me diga.
Fortuna traidora
me hase mudança
Y amor, esperança
Que siempre enpeora
Jamás no mejora
Mi suerte enemiga
No sé que me diga…”

His raven-haired little sister, Camille, was just a few feet away playing with a new toy their father had brought home the night before, clapping and giggling as the wooden top spun and bobbled before eventually falling on its side. Her giggling was quickly replaced by whining as she toddled over to her mother and brother, her perfect ringlets bouncing with each step. She held the little top out in front of her, demanding one of them spin it for what must have been the hundredth time.

Josephine gently lifted the now sleeping Ethan’s head to lay him down as she attended to her demanding two-year old. She knelt down beside Camille and looked into her bright green-grey eyes before placing a little kiss on the tip of her button nose. Taking the top and placing it on the floor in front of them, she began a quiet countdown trying not to disturb Ethan, “Uno, dos…,” but before reaching three she was overcome by a vision causing her to fall backward into the end table that housed the oil lamp providing light in the small playroom. The loud crash awakened Ethan with a start and summoned Elijah from the parlor where he was reading.

Camille began to wail, scared and confused as her mother lay still on the ground, her eyes rolled back into her head as the fire from the lamp began to spread across the floor. Elijah dashed around the corner, retrieved a wet rag from the wash basin and tossed it over the growing fire, stamping it out entirely before rushing to his wife’s side.

He sat on the ground, lifting her head into his lap as he consoled his terrified children.

“Ethan, Camille, come sit beside your papa. It is all right, your mama is just having a dream. Do you remember what she told you about her dreams?”

Ethan nodded as he slowly approached his parents. Camille was too young to fully understand, but she adored her big brother, so she gripped his hand tightly and followed behind him, her wailing reduced to a slight sniffle as she sucked vigorously on her thumb.

Josephine’s eyes returned to normal and she immediately looked up to her husband, her face stricken with panic as she attempted to sound calm, ”Mi vida, we must leave now. We have only moments. It is Lucias.”

Not one to question his wife’s power, Elijah scooped Camille into his arms as he helped Josephine to her feet.

“Ethan, cariño, take my hand. We are going on an adventure.” Josephine smiled at her son, trying to comfort his fears as they fled the only home her children had ever known.

✧

They followed Elijah to the study where he passed Camille to her mother and using his supernatural strength and speed he pushed aside an enormous bookcase revealing a secret tunnel he had built shortly after Ethan’s birth and Josephine’s accompanying premonition.

Josephine gripped Camille tightly as she jumped down into the darkness. “Ciera los ojos, cariño,” she whispered through her daughter’s bouncy curls. While Josephine and Elijah could see perfectly in the darkness, both children were many years away from reaching their preternatural potential and would be completely blind in the lightless tunnel.

She hesitated just long enough to see Elijah drop through the opening with Ethan securely in his arms before she sprinted down the long corridor.

Elijah gently placed Ethan on the ground. “Stand right here, my son. Do not move, I must close the entry.”

With only a faint amount of light filtering through the opening above, Ethan could barely see anything and only felt a slight breeze from his father’s rapid movements as he jumped back up to the floor of their former home and replaced the bookcase that concealed the tunnel.
 

Ethan heard the soft thud of his father’s feet hitting the ground a few feet in front of him, followed by a loud crash above and a blood curdling scream.

“God, forgive me.” Elijah whispered as he picked up his terrified son and rushed off after his wife and daughter. In all the chaos, he had forgotten the human cook that remained in the kitchen. Her eldest son usually came to escort her home by now. The tear that escaped Elijah’s eye was immediately whisked away by the force of his speed as he ran. She was gone, and if her son had not already met the danger on the road, he would soon. As much as he cared for the woman and the boy he had delivered nearly fifteen years ago, he could not risk his family. Going back would mean certain death, but still his heart ached with their loss.

A few minutes later, Elijah bounded up through the opening at the end of the tunnel, finding himself in the field several miles from their home where Josephine and Camille waited.

Josephine immediately recognized the pain in her husband’s expression and reached for his hand in silence. She already knew. She saw the fate of the cook and her young son, but could do nothing to prevent it without damning her own children. She had hoped Elijah would not know, at least for a while, but it was done. Her own heart ached with the loss of the humans that had helped to care for her children all these years, but now was not the time for grief.

“Mi vida, we must keep going. It will not be long before Lucias discovers how we escaped. Lucias has already called for his seer, Asana, to join him and she is less than two days journey from here. Asana is very powerful and is no doubt focused on Ethan. He was ignorant to my ability before, but once she is in our home, near my things, she will know I have sight and he will not be so careless in his future pursuits of our family. He will keep Asana by his side at all times.”

Elijah gently squeezed Josephine’s hand. “My love, I will always follow you.”

She smiled and stood up on her toes, shifting Camille slightly to the side, as she pressed a light kiss on his lips.

“There is a ship leaving for the Americas in a few hours. It is the last one for several weeks. We must make for the coast and barter passage. Lucias will be forced to wait to pursue us, giving us time to reach the settlement of our people in the new land and contact the Elite. They are our only hope.”

✧

“We boarded the ship that night and headed off to the Americas. Once we met with the settlement and contacted the Elite, we were immediately moved to their compound near Boston and guaranteed their protection. That was about the time we first met Barb.” Elijah chuckled as he recounted the memory.
 

“Barb, the nurse I met this morning?” Alexa inquired.

“Yes, the one and only. I do not know what we would have done without her.”

“And I don’t know what I would have done without all of you pestering me all these years,” Barb said chuckling in the doorway.

Alexa had been so engrossed she hadn’t noticed the woman’s entrance, but the sight of her was comforting. Ethan stood and rushed over to the plump woman, scooping her up into a big bear hug as she kissed his cheek.

“Well, it’s good to see you too, boy. You’ve stayed away far too long.” She said swatting his bottom as he set her back on her feet.

“But that is impossible.” Alexa shook her head, feeling thoroughly confused. “She is human and that was like two-hundred years ago, right?”

“Exactly how do you know I’m just a human, child?” Barb asked obviously enjoying herself.

“Well, it’s kind of hard to describe. I didn’t actually listen to your thoughts, but I’m sure that I could have.” She blushed slightly at how cocky she sounded. “Your mind doesn’t feel like theirs do, it feels, human I guess. I didn’t realize it at first, I suppose because I was laboring under the delusion that everyone was human, but after being around the three of you,” she gestured to Ethan, Elijah, and Chloe, “the difference has become quite obvious. I’m pretty sure I could identify any vampire that got close enough now.”

“Interesting. You are partially correct. Barb is human, though I doubt you would be able to read her mind,” Elijah said smiling at the nurse.

“You might be strong, child, but I can guarantee you can’t crack into this hard head of mine,” Barb stated surely tapping her temple.

“She is an extremely powerful witch, probably the most powerful in the world, though she would never own up to it. She protects her mind with magic.” Ethan said, still smiling at his old friend.

“You’re right, I am far older than I look, though I look plenty old. It goes against the code of my people to use magic to extend one’s life beyond their natural potential, but all those years ago I bound myself to this family,” she said pointing at Elijah and Ethan, “and I swore to protect them until this damn war is finally ended.”

“Yes, she is a stubborn old woman and though she could have passed on the responsibility and her knowledge to the younger generations, she says she could not trust anyone else to see it done right. Not to mention, most of her kind are not nearly as tolerant of our race as Barb.” Elijah smiled as he spoke of the sassy old witch. It was obvious that he was very fond of her.

“We had been living with the Elite as protected guests on their compound for a few weeks, but were forced to remain indoors at all times for fear of Lucias’ seer catching a glimpse. You see the compound is protected by a blocking spell that keeps anyone on the outside from seeing inside in any way, including through visions of the future. Unfortunately, that spell requires physical barriers as well, which is why we could not venture outside. Trying to keep a rambunctious little boy like Ethan contained for so long proved most challenging.” Elijah looked at his son, all of the love and affection he felt evident in his warm green eyes.

“Ethan being the resourceful young man that he was had managed to slip away from his mother one day while she was playing with Camille. He was mere moments from stepping outside and into potential disaster, when he found himself frozen in place with his hand on the door.”

“Imagine my surprise. My heart pounding with the anticipation of freedom, to see the sun and play outside in the yard and suddenly I was completely immobilized. I could not even move my eyes. I began to panic, thinking the enemy had found me as my parents had warned me about time and again.”

“Foolish boy, I ripped into him like hounds on fox about disobeying his folks. I had half a mind to pull down his trousers and give him the spanking of a lifetime for being so stupid. I left him stuck there for a good long while to teach him a lesson while I took my sweet time fetching his parents.” She recalled moving to take a seat on the floor next to Chloe who smiled broadly at her new companion. Barb groaned with the effort of squatting down.
 

“Yes, unfortunately we received a fairly sound tongue lashing as well for letting Ethan out of our sight with everything that was at stake. She had not even bothered to tell us who she was before she started with the lecture, but by the time we reached Ethan we had been properly introduced and once her initial irritation with our carelessness wore off she was quite pleasant company. Of course we were less than pleased with Ethan running off as he did.”

“Father, let us not forget that my little stunt gave Barb the idea for the charm that gave us back our freedom.”

“Don’t go getting cocky, boy. I would have thought of it on my own eventually,” she chided. “Go on, show it to her.”

Elijah rolled up his sleeve revealing an intricate tattoo, identical to the one on Ethan’s chest. The sight of it took her mind back to the last time she had seen it and her faced flushed at the thought. “She placed a blocking spell that is represented by these markings on each member of our family. So long as she lives, no seer can track our paths.”

“Yes, quite an ingenious idea, if I do say so myself, but it has its limitation since it also blocks your pretty wife from seeing you.”

“A small price to pay, and I think it has given my love some unexpected and overdo peace over all these years. It has been nice living in the present for a change, not constantly consumed with the future.”

Just then, a faint ringing sound echoed from across the room. Elijah moved to his desk, his movements only a blur to Alexa’s still human eyes, and retrieved his phone from the drawer.

“Well, speak of the devil,” he said smiling wide, but that smile immediately faded when he placed the phone to his ear.

“Slow down, my love. Yes, we are all here,” he said, his expression worried. “How long? I understand. I will call Camille from the car,” he said slipping the phone into his pocket and rushing over to help Barb up from the floor. “We have to leave, immediately,” he stated, his tone urgent.

✧

Ethan grabbed Chloe and Alexa, each in one arm, and whisked them out to the back parking lot. Elijah was on his heels with Barb in tow, holding the large woman in his arms as if she weighed nothing at all.

“What’s happening?” Alexa questioned, her voice cracking with panic. She could feel the anxiety pouring off of Ethan and Elijah.