The Haret (The Haret Series) (19 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

             
A crisp October wind swept through the woods shaking loose the dead leaves as it whistled through the bare branches. Even though Felicitas had worked up a sweat hiking, the moving air brought an intense chill along with an ominous sense of doom. The unexpected attack of the three drakes put her on edge and now she found herself jumping at every snap of twigs.

             
After Grant regained some strength they left the wreckage and began walking the twelve to fifteen miles back to the house. Grant insisted they stay off the main road and make their trek through the woods saying it would be safer. There wasn’t a path to follow so Grant blazed a trail helping them along over fallen tree trunks, gullies and through rushing creeks.

             
Grant sustained the most injuries. Not by the truck cart wheeling over the embankment but from the beating he received from the three drakes that were hell bent on killing him. Even though he had taken an intense walloping as her grandmother would have put it, he continued on blazing a trail through the woods protecting her and her mother.

             
Sharon had surprised them all by finding Grants gun in the midst of the wreckage and shooting the men. Felicitas and her mother bonded in a special way seeing they both fired a gun and took a life. It was an eerie feeling and Felicitas didn’t like it even though Grant consoled her by saying they were pure evil and would have killed them all with no regret. Still she hated pulling the trigger and hoped it was the first and last time she would ever find herself in that situation again.  Sharon confessed it wasn’t her first time handling a gun admitting Rosie raised her learning to shoot and they had spent many afternoons blasting cans off the side of a fence which explained her being able to aim with precision, meticulously placing the bullets in the men’s chest. Felicitas also noticed her mother softened her demeanor toward Grant after seeing him nearly beat to a pulp trying to save her daughter.

             
Felicitas had never seen her mother looking the way she did right now. Her clothes were torn and disheveled, she was barefoot, her forehead was bleeding and her hair was tousled and limp from slipping in the creek. When Grant helped her to her feet Felicitas thought she heard a faint thank you coming from her mother’s mouth. For the first time in years her mother didn’t adorn the façade of the first lady or picture perfect minister’s wife. She looked real and approachable and lovelier than Felicitas could remember.

             
They had been walking for at least three miles when Grant suggested they stop and rest. Felicitas was relieved. Her feet ached and one of her ankles was severely swollen. It suffered a sprain when the drake twisted it flipping her over. She had never witnessed men with such incredible strength before and for that matter she never knew until now that Grant possessed the same level of power. She watched him blaze the trail as they plodded along and suddenly he became more mysterious than ever. She could sense he felt her inspection of him and remained unusually quiet appearing engrossed in his mission to avoid any unwanted questions.

             
Sharon sat on the ground next to Felicitas and began picking the dried grass from her daughter’s hair and smiled softly.

             
“You doing alright?”

             
Felicitas only nodded; her mouth too parched to talk.

             
“And what about you?” She said directing her words to Grant. “You okay?”

             
He wiped at the blood that continued to trickle from his mouth then turned his head and spit.

             
“I’m good.”

             
He remained standing keeping vigil as he massaged the back of his neck then ran his hand through his hair combing it away from his eyes. By the look on his face Felicitas could tell he had something to say.

             
“You gotta know that attack was the first of many. They’re on a mission and they won’t stop until it’s completed. I need to find a hiding place for Felicitas.”

             
Sharon disagreed but this time was more polite in her argument.

             
“I think once she gets home we can keep her safe. It’s easy to be attacked when you’re alone, out in the middle of nowhere but when she is in her own place surrounded by family and friends it won’t be as easy. Besides we have a state of the art security system.”

             
Grant stroked his hair again and Felicitas could tell he was trying to remain calm and choose the right words so not provoke her mother.

             
“She was on a hayride with friends when she disappeared for a week. The media is romanticizing her disappearance and now that a teenage boy’s been shot they are going to be all over the story. Keeping her in the public eye will be dangerous. The enemy will know her every move. Besides you have two other daughters to think about. The drakes are heinous; they will use or kill anyone who gets in their way.”

             
“Mother,” Felicitas said. “I don’t want anyone hurt because of me. David is hanging onto his life right now because he helped me and we were just attacked and you could have been killed. I couldn’t bare it if anything happened to any of you. I think Grant’s right, I need to go away.”

             
Sharon took a deep breath and stared out past the trees thinking before she replied to a statement. Felicitas watched as she mulled over the situation, obviously planning a course of action where she might still regain some control.  Sharon pursed her lips together casting her eyes on Grant.

             
“Who are you and how did you get involved in all of this?”

             
Her question intrigued Felicitas who had wondered the same thing ever since her encounter with him in the convenience store. Even Rosie had been extremely vague about Grant and Felicitas realized she didn’t even know his last name.

             
Grant stared back at Sharon.

             
“Why do you ask?”

             
“Because I don’t have the means to do a background check right now and before I allow my daughter to go into hiding with you I want to know who you are.               Felicitas looked at Grant anticipating his response. He stared back at her mother knowing the severity of her question and Felicitas hoped whatever he said would be convincing.

             
“A background check wouldn’t do you any good. It would only tell you that Grant Alexander died ten years ago when he was hit by a semi crossing the highway.”

             
Felicitas watched the color drain from her mother’s face and was sure it had from hers as well. His foreboding words drifted from his mouth surrounding them like the wind. She shivered feeling a chill trace its bony finger up her spine. His declaration all but paralyzed her and she felt dizzy and confused and she wanted to cover her ears and scream. Grant must have realized the impact of his words because he crouched down on his heels in front of them both and continued directing his words to Sharon.

             
“I told you on the afternoon when we saw the baby deer at the creek that I would come back one day but you wouldn‘t recognize me and now I am here.  I was right, you don’t know me.”

             
Sharon stood abruptly her hands trembling as she pushed the hair away from her face. A tear escaped the corner of her eye but she brushed it away quickly so no one would notice.

             
“My God.” She whispered closing her eyes in disbelief. “I don’t believe this.”

             
Grant stood from his crouching position and faced her.

             
“Ask me the question and then you will know… unless you have forgotten.”

             
Sharon brushed another tear from her cheek.

             
“I never forgot.”

             
“Ask me then.”

             
She took a deep breath while Felicitas waited in anticipation.

             
“When am I wide awake?”

             
“When you are fast asleep.” Grant answered quietly

             
Felicitas watched them both in astonishment realizing she was the only one who didn’t know what was going on. Whatever secret they shared she felt it was the angelic sign her mother said she would need before she believed.

             
“You two know each other?”

             
Sharon took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I knew him when I was a child. He saved your grandmother and me on the night my father died. I was only six then and he rescued us from our house while it was burning.”

             
Felicitas swallowed hard at what she was hearing. She never knew her mother’s house burned when she was a child and since her parents had always forbid any mention of Rosie she was never told how her grandfather died.              

             
“We moved far away and he stayed with us and helped us through the hard months that followed. I knew him by the name of Paul back then. He would come and go and during those days he took the place of my dad who I missed very much. We spent a lot of time together when he would come and he would read to me from the book and tell me the story over and over. Back then I loved it because I was young and naïve and didn’t realize all the pain it brought. Then one day he took me fishing and told me he was leaving for a long time but he would come back one day to help me again but said I might not recognize him so he told me to ask him a special question and the by his answer I would know it was him and that I could trust him. That‘s the day we saw the baby deer.”

             
She crossed her arms in front of her and looked out into the woods as if she were reliving the memory. There was a tone of bitterness in her voice when she continued.

             
“I missed you so much after you left. I would go to the creek every day and stand on the big rock and watch for you, hoping you were coming back. When mother told me you had to go away because of the story I began to hate the book. She blamed the drakes for my father’s death and sheltered me to the point of almost driving me insane. We were always moving always running. I finally rebelled and wanted nothing to do with the story anymore. In time I actually was able to forget about it and put it behind me…until now”

             
“I’m sorry.” Grant said quietly.

             
“Mother knows that you are really Paul doesn’t she?” Sharon asked.

             
Grant rubbed the stubble on his face and narrowed his eyes.

             
“Paul is just another pseudo name. Rosie knows my true identity.”

             
“And what is your true identity?” Felicitas asked bracing herself for the answer. “And where do I know you? I keep having strange visions or flashbacks and you appear in every one of them. You were with me last week, when I disappeared weren‘t you?”

             
He nodded his head. “Yes I was.”

             
Felicitas heart continued to pound.

             
Realizing a great pronouncement was about to be made, Sharon sat down beside her daughter taking her hand in hers. Grant sat on his heels in front of them.

             
“I have walked this earth on and off for many years first with the Shawnee in the days when I was Chowilawu, then a second time when I came as Paul, and now the third time as Grant Alexander. But, my real name is Sargon. I am the grandson of King Uriah. 

This time it was Felicitas who kept her eyes fixed on Grant.

“Why didn’t you tell me this the first time I met you?”

“Would you have believed me?”

              “Maybe….Where was I last week?”

             
“You were with me, in the gateway, we hid for about an hour, while the drakes were looking for you. When you came out a week had past. Time changes with different dimensions.”

             
She shivered.

             
“How come I can’t remember?”

             
“Because your mind isn’t able to comprehend portals just yet.”

             
He was right; she couldn’t comprehend it, not now anyway, besides she was much too tired to try.

             
“So what about Raine? Why isn’t he here? I saw him that night where did he go.”

             
Grant rubbed at his stubble again the way he did when he dreaded answering a question.

             
“They took him that night. He sacrificed himself for your safety.”

             
Her heart sank and she wanted to burst into tears but didn’t really know why. She didn’t know Raine that well beyond her dreams anyway.