Authors: Theresa Jones
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #romance, #Paranormal, #Teen & Young Adult, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Angels, #Paranormal & Urban
“I will not argue with you that she is powerful. Far more powerful than anyone we have seen before,” Rick paused, and I couldn’t help but listen closer, “but she has Samantha. We all know what that
means
!”
I looked up at David; he had pursed his lips as he continued to listen. He looked down at me, and I knew in that moment, he had already known their feelings on this matter. I questioned him with my eyes, but he only shook his head as if to say that we wouldn’t be discussing it right now. I would have to get it out of him later.
Another man continued the discussion, “Well, we could be wrong about that… there is a first for everything.”
Rick answered, “No. We are not wrong. It cannot be her!” He sounded so sure.
Nicholas spoke up again. “We have already tracked her lineage back to six of the nine. How hard would it be to believe that she could be from all nine?” Wow! That news shocked me. No one had told me that they knew who I had descended from. I could figure out a few… but I didn’t realize it had been six.
“I will not allow your misguided thoughts to put her in danger!” Rick nearly growled the words. Hmmm, where did that come from? I hadn’t heard anyone say anything about putting me in danger. This was the problem with eavesdropping; you just didn’t have the whole story.
“If she is the Descendant, than she would not be in any danger. It is foretold. However, if she is not the one, we shouldn’t have to wait long until She is born,” a new man that I hadn’t heard speak yet said.
It was then that David grabbed my hand to try and lead me away. I looked at him and shook my head. There was no way I would leave now. I had to know what they were talking about. He pleaded to me with his eyes, almost begging me to go with him. I shook my head again. He sighed quietly and then I heard Rick say, “Gentlemen, we should discuss this in a more private area and at a later time. If you will excuse me, I believe I have some company.”
The men filed out of his office and passed by me. Not one would look me in the eye. David and I walked into Rick’s office to see him leaning against the front of his desk. He looked at me and asked, “How much did you hear?”
Without answering him, I asked my own question, “How did you know we were out there?” It really wasn’t fair he would stop the conversation like that. I deserved to know what was going on; they had been talking about me after all.
He looked at David, and then back at me, “I heard David,” he said simply.
“David didn’t say a word. I thought we weren’t allowed to listen to each other’s thoughts!” I realized that I was starting to get upset. The way they talked about me without me even being present rubbed me the wrong way. The anger showed through , and when I said the words, they came out louder and more aggravated than I meant them to be. I took a deep breath, trying to settle my nerves.
Rick sighed but then ignored my statement, “How much did you hear, Allison.”
I started the press the issue, but David interrupted me. He spoke to Rick, “We heard that you feel she cannot be the one, but they do.” He motioned with his hand, pointing to the door the men just left from. “We also heard that there may be some danger involved.” Then he looked to me as he said, “I opened my mind to him, allowing him to hear me. He did not actively try to listen to my thoughts. It is basically the same thing you did when you called me. Rick and I have practiced it since we came back; so far very few people can do it.”
Well, at least he answered me too. “Why all the secrecy? Why are they so sure that I am the Descendant and why are you so sure I’m not? And what does me having Sam have to do with anything?” I questioned him. I needed these answers.
He walked around to the back of his desk and sat into his chair. He then leaned forward and slouched, placing his face in his hands, for the first time not presenting his polished front. He sighed loudly, and then looked up, “Allison, you cannot be the Descendant as you already have a child out of wedlock, and thus you cannot have descended from Castafonda. She was not only full of love, but of chastity.”
As if that explained everything… Who cared if I had a child out of wedlock? I looked at him, compelling him to continue. “And what is the point in telling you what they think, if it is nearly impossible to be true? We are not sure why the Rising has come to believe that you are the one, but we had no choice but to check into it. We thought it may be true, but we are only able to track your lineage to six.” He sighed, looking down again.
“Which six?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.
“Well, some you should already know. You are a telekinetic, so you know you have descended from Temperance. You’re a telepath, so Verefidel. Your shield is phenomenal, I hear,” he smiled and I blushed, “so you know you have descended from Esperance. I haven’t had the opportunity to see you dance, but Sharon was gushing about it, and we have all seen Samantha’s gracefulness, so you should have guessed that you are from Arabella also.” He was right, those were the ones I had figured out on my own. But he only listed four, and he had said six earlier.
“The other two have more subtle abilities. Beatrice and Idadurant. You stood on your own against several of the most powerful Rising members and walked away unscathed. So Idadurant’s ferocity in battle can hardly be denied. And while you do not have Beatrice’s patience, you are very sensitive to the emotions of others around you – a quality that has passed down from her.” He paused again, making sure I understood. Then resumed, “I know of only one other who has descended from so many before,” his eyes briefly flicked to David’s face, then back at mine. “And we assume that is why you are so powerful.” I nodded, showing that I understood.
“So…”I started, then paused to coordinate my thoughts, “you know for sure I am from six out of nine.” He nodded so I continued, “But I have Sam, and that means I can’t be the one because I wasn’t married when I had her? Don’t you think that’s a little old fashioned?”
He understood what my question meant, so he answered, “It’s not like one has a choice who they descend from. Someone who descends from Arabella just cannot be a bad artist. They will have some skill pertaining to the arts. That’s just how it is. One who descends from Idadurant will always be fierce in battle and a strong opponent. There is no question about it. And just the same, anyone who is from Castafonda will be chaste until marriage. Though they may have urges, their conscience will not allow them to do anything before their union is sanctified. It’s like they don’t have a choice. Whether it’s old fashioned or not means nothing. In fact, our abilities have grown stronger with time, not the opposite.”
I nodded, understanding. “So, that means I will not be able to defeat them?” I made it a question, my fear and uncertainty hanging onto each word as I spoke them.
“We can still defeat Damien. He is the one that demands your life and has begun this misguided attempt at destroying the world so he can rule it. But you are right; you will not be the one to defeat them all.”
I was actually glad to hear that. I didn’t want to defeat them all. It was crazy enough knowing I killed a few of them back in Texas. I didn’t want to kill people, even though they were evil. And I really didn’t want the pressure of knowing that I had to go up against them alone. I only wanted to be rid of Damien. I wanted my family safe. I wanted the world safe.
Ready to begin, and feeling all pumped, I said, “Cool, so let’s make a plan to kick some butt!”
Chapter 16
Preparations
Over the next month, Rick and David came up with a plan to lure Damien out into the open. We didn’t know where the Rising headquarters were exactly – I mean, we knew it was somewhere in the northeast Unites States, but not exactly where – so we couldn’t go to them. The plan was simple enough. Lure him into an open field where there would be no innocent bystanders affected. Take some of our top people. Assume there will be several of their highest ranking members as well as Damien, and battle, hopefully killing them all. Realistically we knew that we couldn’t beat them all and that there may even be some casualties on our side, but we could always hope for the best. We had found the perfect location in central Kansas; it was just a huge flat plain where no one would bother us or be bothered by us.
We used a spot outside of the Compound, about two miles wide and four miles long to practice in. It allowed us to practice across a distance there and it was more like the field we would battle the Rising on than the Hall, a confined space over flowing with good power.
We decided that I would go to the field and lower my shield. I would attempt to call out to Damien and hope he came. The others would keep their shields up and hopefully he wouldn’t notice them until he got there. We assumed he would still bring others with him, since he wouldn’t be foolish enough to come to an open field on his own, not after our last encounter.
The group that would go along now consisted of three of the Council members – Rick, Nicholas, and Christopher, who I found out had been the only other council member that supported Rick in believing I was not the Descendant. Though he was the one that believed the descendant would be coming soon. David and I, of course, were in the group, along with seven people who were basically already the guard for the Order. They all had descended from Idadurant, and at least one other Primitus. There were twelve of us in total. It didn’t seem like a lot, but we were powerful and the world depended on us.
Everything was riding on this. Everything was dependent on this working. The only problem was, no one from the Order had ever killed a Leader of the Rising before, so we weren’t exactly sure how to do it.
I had spent days telling our group, time and time again, everything that had happened in Texas. Explaining how I used as much power as I could and I only made a pinprick in his ‘black hole’, as I called it. And when I opened up that passageway, he took advantage of it and had me under his power instantly. I had been no match for him; it wasn’t even close at all.
I tried to explain that to them, hoping we could find a way around it. The general consensus was that if we all used our power on him, combined, we could beat him. Not mentioning that the only way that we could all force our power into him at the same time was if all the other Rising members present were dead or gone. But like I said, we weren’t even sure that would work. It was just a guess, a guess that would affect all of our lives.
***
Finally I had a minute alone. It was about 10 at night and Sam was already in bed. After everything that had happened with Mark, Sharon had left the dancers hallway and moved into the quarters next to mine. She said I was the closest she had to family now, and she wanted to keep us as close as possible. I was more than ok with it, she was my best friend and like a sister to me now.
On several occasions, she had come over after Sam was in bed and we would stay up and chat and laugh and just comfort each other in this time of conflict. She either ate dinner with us, or we would go over to her place and eat with her. I was glad Sam had another person here she could be so close with. But another benefit was that I could knock on Sharon’s door and let her know I was going for a walk and she would watch Sam for me. It had started happening more often now that we were training so hard. I just needed a break, a moment to myself to think and get my thoughts in order. To try to stay sane despite all the craziness that surrounded me.
It was funny to think that only a short while ago thing were normal. There were no wars, not really. No famine or plagues. Sure, countries and politicians always fought for power, but not ultimate power. Not at the expense of the human race or the world as we knew it. Real evil had been hidden from the everyday person.
Sharon was the opposite of me. Where I wanted to be up at the crack of dawn, she always wanted to stay up as late as possible. I knocked on her door and she came to answer it. “Hey, you mind listening for Sam again?” I asked. I didn’t need to go into a lot of detail as to why I wanted to leave or where I was going. She was used to these requests.
“Sure, no problem,” she answered. “Just give me a second to grab some things.” She left the door open as she turned around and danced to her room. Even when she walked it looked like she was dancing, gliding and swaying softly from side to side. She was in her room only a couple of minutes before she walked back out with a small bag. It was the same bag she brought every time she stayed over to listen for Sam.
I left her in my living room, sure she would be asleep on the couch when I returned. Last time she had said if she could have a closet in the living room she would just move in and always sleep on the couch.
I made my way to the elevator and out of the compound, walking into the meadow I had grown to love. I walked to the pond that sang softly to me and leaned against the same tree I always did as it offered shade from the bright stars and moon. I breathed in the fresh air, not tainted by the wars or death.
It was the middle of the summer and the weather was perfect. In the middle of the night like this, I needed a sweater or my robe, but it wasn’t cold. I let my body and mind relax. I reached into myself and grabbed ahold of my power, releasing it and letting it surge through my veins. I had discovered it allowed me to free my mind. Having to constantly hold the power so tight within me, to control it so precisely, was like constantly flexing a muscle all day and never allowing yourself to rest. When I came out here at night, the only thing I kept hold of was my internal shield, the rest I let go. Even when we trained, I had to keep control.
David and I were teamed together, always. Our battle stances were side by side. We were to go against Nicholas and Joshua. We were practicing offensive attacks while they practiced their defensive skills. I started out reaching for my power, the same way I had when I had gone against Damien at my mother’s house. I closed my eyes, felt the power coursing at its source and freed it. It flooded through me and I reached out with my mind. With my eyes closed, I could see the bright lights that represented each Order member. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the same as the Rising members. With them I had just sent my power to their brains, but they had been black holes. This was different. Order members already had light. So I wasn’t sure exactly what to do now.
I decided that I would just incapacitate them by flooding them with my power. As I looked harder, I could tell each light spot had a tint of a different color. David was green next to me, but he was on my side, so I wasn’t going to try and incapacitate him. In front of me, Nicholas was blue – not royal blue like Rick, but darker, like a navy blue – and Joshua was bright yellow.
Once I grabbed hold of their minds, I could hear their thoughts. They were very focused on the practice, and they both had shields up. They felt me in their heads, I could tell, and they tried to push me out, but I pushed harder. Less than a second had gone by and I had their lights both changed to purple. I thought I was doing well, but not good enough. This was nothing like the amount of power I had been controlling when I was with Damien. I readied myself to try harder still, until I heard them both scream. I pulled my power back in, almost reflexively, and opened my eyes.
Joshua was on the ground, face first, covering his ears, and while Nicholas was still standing, he looked pained. As soon as I had hold of my power, they both opened their eyes. Nicholas’ expression was one of surprise, while Joshua’s was angry. Despite pulling my power back, it wasn’t all the way and I could still hear their thoughts. Joshua was thinking he had never been bested in a battle before and was upset that I had him down, face first, within seconds. Nicholas was impressed but surprised I had been able to break passed his shield in the first place.
Once I realized I could still hear them, I closed off my power completely, only using enough to hold my internal shield up. I looked around and noticed everyone was looking at us.
“I’m sorry…” my cheeks flashed scarlet as everyone just continued to gawk at me.
“That’s ok, Allison. We are practicing. But maybe if you don’t go full force, it would help us. We are obviously not strong enough to hold off your attacks.” Nicholas said incredulously.
Thinking back on it now, it was pretty awesome that a Council member who was 160 years old was not as powerful as me. And I didn’t even tell them that I had been about to really try, like I had when confronted with Damien. So I held back when we practiced. I attacked only enough to help them learn to keep their shields up, but never enough to really exert myself. It was good for them, but it didn’t really challenge me at all.
That’s what made this so wonderful. I knew that if I wanted to, I could move the cliffs away. I could carve into them any design I felt like, something even better than Mount Rushmore. I could empty the pond and move the water down the mountain and create a new pond at the bottom. I could feel the power rushing through every cell in my body. I could feel it tingling and electrifying everything around me. And though I didn’t do anything with it, I didn’t hold anything back. I just let it flow.
The energy flowing through me was too much for me, so I stood and began to dance. It wasn’t any particular dance at first, until I remembered seeing Samantha dance to the flowers. I decided I could pay back this mountain for all the troubles I’d given it during my many practice sessions and began to dance to the earth. It was a dance for growth and life. I swayed easily back and forth and dipped low as my arms and hands swiveled in a graceful motion.
“Allison!” I heard him before I realized he was there. I was so caught up in the dance that hadn’t even heard him approach. I stopped dancing and turned to look at him, but before I could find him, my eyes had to adjust to the sight before me.
Where before there had been a gazebo with flower bushes surrounding it, there now stood a mound of bushes, flowers, and vines twenty feet high that shimmered in the moonlight. You couldn’t even see the gazebo beneath them anymore. I looked to the pond, but the grass had grown so high it covered the pond completely. The grass around me was nearly up to my waist, swaying in the small breeze, except for the small circle where I had been dancing. The small patches of vines and grass that grew out of the cracks in the cliffs now covered the rocks in green, like a velvet carpet had been spread across them.
As I was admiring the greenery, David walked into view. “Were you planning on drowning us in grass or just starting an earthquake?” He said it with a smile, but the concern was really there. I hadn’t even realized how far I had gone. “You probably made the mountain grow a couple of hundred feet,” he chuckled.
I mumbled, “Sorry.” And I meant it. I really was sorry. “I didn’t mean to get so carried away,” I explained to him.
He walked closer and looked at me. Still smiling he said, “You can’t seem to help yourself.” And then wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer to him. He kissed me, soft and sweet. I could tell he was holding back.
I wanted more, but he pulled away too quickly for me to hold him captive. “Don’t worry; we can have someone come mow the grass. And the flowers look great!” he assured me.
“I really didn’t mean to do that. I was just trying to…” I stopped to think, trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to say. “I just had to relieve some pressure I guess. I am constantly holding everything in and to release it feels good. Relaxing, ya know?” It was hard to explain, but I had to let go every now and then or I felt like I might explode. Or maybe it was implode. I couldn’t tell. I just knew that I needed to release it.
He nodded, “That’s why we have studies in everyone’s quarters. If you hold it in too long, it gets painful. You need the release,” he explained. And I knew that. I knew that I had a study in my place, but it was just a square room with nothing in it. I wanted the fresh air. And part of me was honestly scared I might break the room – and the Compound with it. I needed more area to spread out, somewhere with no walls or anything holding me back or holding me in.
I decided to change the subject. “Why are you out here anyways?” I had already made it clear why I was out here. But why was
he
? That’s what I really wanted to know.
He smiled again, then looked down, almost like he was embarrassed. It was a rather cute look on him, but it only made me more curious. I encouraged him with my eyes, showing him that I was waiting for an explanation.
Finally he gave in, “I came by your room tonight.” That was a surprise. He had never really come by my room at night. Probably because he knew my emotions would get away from me if we were alone in my bedroom at night. I could already imagine keeping him captive and making him stay all night. This must have been the cause of his embarrassed look, but it still didn’t explain why he came to my room. “Sharon told me you would be out here, so I decided to come find you.” Well, that explained why he was
here
, but…
“Why did you go to my room tonight?” He hugged me to him, smothering my face in his chest. Normally I would have loved that, but at the moment I was trying to read his face. It felt like he was trying to hide something from me. I pulled away and looked up at him.
He sighed, “I understand that I shouldn’t be sneaking in to see you in the middle of the night, but sometimes I just can’t help myself.” It was cute the way he said sneaking. That would imply we weren’t allowed to go where we wanted, when we wanted. Or that it was somehow forbidden. But it wasn’t.