04 Last (32 page)

“And he has all his Seekers to back him up,” Reaper said.

I moved over to the monitor and shut off the feed, before they saw what I had done in the room. I wasn’t eager to add to the look of horror on Alex’s face.

“Should we find Odette?” I asked.

“She won’t be found,” Serenity said. “If she wants to disappear, she will. Searching for her is a waste of time.”

“So…what? Our only option is Sevier?” I asked.

“We can talk about that elsewhere,” Reaper said. “It’s not safe for us to linger here. Marcus could have people watching.”

He turned to Ileana, who was watching us curiously. Her eyes lingered on my face; the expression on her face was familiar. She was trying to figure me out – trying to decide why the others were so interested in me. Her look suggested she knew more about me than I would have liked her to know.

“You and your people are welcome to find safe shelter with us for as long as you need,” Reaper added to her. “Though you should know we intend to take the fight to Marcus soon. You are welcome to go your own way, of course, or you can help us in the fight.”

“Do you intend to kill Marcus?” Ileana asked.

“Yes,” Reaper said.

“Then I will join your cause,” Ileana said. “The others must make their own choice.”

“I understand,” Reaper said. “I’ll have two of my people – walkers – come here and take those willing to fight back to our ship.”

Ileana nodded and turned away to tell the other Watchers, who had worked for the nine about Reaper’s proposal. I could tell that the Saints were about to grow larger. Not many of them were eager to leave the fight after seeing their whole world turned upside down. They had been loyal to the council – they were like Serenity. They would want payback.

“I’ll need to go to the ship and talk with River,” Reaper told us. “We need to organize. Plan. This changes everything.”

“Of course,” Daniel said.

“Will you continue your training?” Reaper asked.

“I should talk to the historian,” I said.

The attack had changed my priorities. With Marcus moving, I had to move as well. Training could only take me so far before action had to be accomplished.

Reaper nodded and pulled out his cell phone. He dialed a number and I heard River pick up on the other end. She sounded preoccupied – her preoccupation disappeared the moment Reaper told her what had happened. They were lost in what to do next and how to go about it.

“Who is coming back with me?” I asked.

Daniel held out his hand but the others looked at me with slightly guilty expressions on their faces. I knew why they felt guilty – they wanted to stay where the action was. They were tired of watching the Idaho landscape turn from chilly to cold.

“It’s okay,” I assured them. “I’ll see you soon.”

I grabbed Daniel’s hand and we moved in to the darkness in-between. When we landed outside of the historian’s cave, Daniel finally let down his guard. The fear he had kept from his face was obvious. He could no longer contain it. His eyes told of a secret he had kept from the others.

“What’s the matter?” I asked him.

“It’s coming true,” he told me.

“What is?”

“My vision,” he said. “The council dying…I saw that. I saw that before I even knew who they were. I saw Ileana and the others – I knew where to find them. It’s coming true.”

“That doesn’t mean the world is ending,” I said.

“It means it’s trying to,” Daniel replied.

“What has happened?” the historian asked, coming out of her cave.

“The council was attacked,” Daniel replied. “All of them are dead, except for Odette. She managed to escape; used the council’s death as a distraction.”

“Marcus?” the historian asked.

“Yes,” Daniel replied.

“His pace quickens,” she said.

“The question is how we catch up to him,” I said.

“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” the historian said. “You will have to gather your strength, find his hideout in Israel before you can move.”

“I don’t like that,” I said.

“Have you been reading in your grandfather’s book?” the historian asked.

“No,” I said. “I’ve been busy with training.”

“Maybe there is an answer there,” she suggested.

“I’ll look,” I promised.

“You should also consider where you will spend your birthday,” the historian said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“It is painful to change,” she said. “A place of comfort and quiet is best.”

“We don’t even know if I’m going to ‘change,’” I said.

“You will,” the historian said. “You already have signs of the change.”

“Signs? What signs?” I asked.

She smiled but did not reply.

“Once the change is over, come back to me,” she said. “We will have some things to discuss.”

“Okay…” I agreed.

Daniel pulled me away from the cave, back to the house we had renovated.

“She’s right,” Daniel said as we walked up the rickety steps of the house.

“She is?” I asked.

“We need to think about where to keep you during the change,” he said.

“Where to ‘keep me’?” I asked.

“We need a place where no one will come looking for the source of the screams,” he added. “A place that is remote.”

“You’re not making feel very calm about this,” I said.

“Sorry,” he said.

“What’s wrong with this house?” I asked. “It’s remote, private and if I get out of control, like you seem to think I will, the historian can come down here and kick my butt.”

“Is that what you want?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I’d like to not go through some painful change that will change my life forever, but we don’t always get what we want,” I said.

“True,” he agreed.

We walked up the stairs inside and went to the room that had been our living quarters for the past three weeks. I sat down on the bed we shared and pulled my grandfather’s book out from under the bed. I looked at it for a moment, the weight of it on my lap as heavy as the questions on my mind. The scene I had just faced ran through my brain on a loop. I had really burned people to ash; that had been me, without the change. What kind of monster would I be once I was no longer entirely human?

My thoughts must have showed on my face. Daniel bent down in front of me and gently took my hands. His eyes were full of compassion and empathy. He had been where I had been; he had done things he was not proud to admit.

“You did what you had to,” he said. “You were more than brave.”

“It was violent and messy, and I was scared,” I said.

“That’s war,” Daniel replied.

I sighed and, since I didn’t feel like replying to that, I opened my grandfather’s book. I flipped to the back and started scanning through his writing. There were pages and pages of entries – more than just the first ones I had read. Daniel sat down next to me on the bed and looked over my shoulder as I read. Most of the entries were about his search for my family, meeting the mysterious Jacob and the quest for answers. He discussed his meeting with Jacob at length – apparently, Jacob had been an unsettling person to meet. It wasn’t until the last page of journal entries that I found something truly interesting. Daniel and I shared a look of surprise as we read the first sentence. Our minds racing, we focused on the entry as a whole.

“Cobb, my oldest friend, has lied to me. He is not to be trusted. He has been taken in by Jacob. I believe I mentioned my feelings on Jacob before. He is a strange man, full of grace and charm that no human could possibly match. There was something wrong with him, though – a violent nature he kept carefully hidden behind his good manners. He was charming, but he could not hide his passion. He came here searching for something, something beyond my family history. He kept trying to sneak looks at my work, to see if I was keeping things from him. I do not trust his motives. Now, I find that Cobb has been in contact with him. They have formed an alliance to betray me. They want my research – they want to use it to their own ends. At first, I was at a loss to understand why they were so interested in my research, why they would work so hard to deceive me, but I have finally unearthed the reason. My family was more than royalty. They were protectors of a secret, a secret that could undo the very earth. Jacob and Cobb think they can control this secret and master the benefits of the secret, but they cannot. Cobb will have to be watched.”

The entry stopped there.

“Secret?” I asked in frustration.

“Keep reading,” Daniel urged me.

The next entry was written a day later. It was written a month before my grandfather died. It was the last entry in the book.

“Since I have discovered the secret of my family, I have struggled with the truth of my knowledge. How do I keep others from learning the truth? How do I keep something so terrible out of the hands of people with less than honorable intentions? How do I stop them? I was stupid to let Jacob and Cobb in on my quest, stupid to trust them so completely. But how to make sure that someone carries on my work? How do I make sure someone sees them for what they are? The truth shakes me to my core. What is stranger still, is the dream I had last night. It might be the effects of the cancer or my fear presenting itself, but it is a dream I cannot shake. It haunts me. A man with clear, grey eyes and a strong sense of peace came to me and told me that I must trust my daughter and granddaughter; they were the answers to my fear. For some reason, I trusted him. His eyes were the kindest I had ever known. He would not lie to me. My daughter and my sweet grandbaby will face the fear and conquer it. I trust in them.

Cobb came to me today. He came under the guise of a friend worried about the choices I had made, the choices concerning my daughter. He knows about the cancer – he knows I will not live beyond the winter. He told me that he thought it was time to make amends. He told me to will the house to my daughter. His urging made me think of the dream. I do not know what reason he has for wanting them here in the house, but I will do as he asks. I will listen to the dream. I must trust that my baby girl, and her girl, will be strong enough to face whatever evil Cobb is dreaming up. I will trust in my sweet girl, because she is the strongest of us all. She could always see the truth, even when it was hidden. She will know – she will put a stop to the plan Jacob has set in motion. I believe in that…I believe in her. I will hide this journal today in a part of my study no one else knows about. I will leave the sword for her to find, as a clue to the secret of the book. I hope it will be found, and my girl can understand that I never meant to bring this trouble to her. She was simply the only one I trust – she and her daughter are the last of the Michaels. They are the rightful keepers of the secret. They must fulfill the promise of their blood. They must keep guard over that which has remained hidden. So, with faith that my girl will find this, I leave this message…

My darling girl, I am sorry for the pain I have caused. I hope you find this, and I hope you will forgive an old fool his foolishness. I have left the answer to what Jacob seeks in the house. It is with a picture I have hanging near the kitchen – the last picture you ever took with her family. I have to hope you find it. Hope is all I have.”

I closed the book and looked up at Daniel in shock. My grandfather’s words resonated. He had known about Cobb. He had trusted us to face Cobb. Daniel was deep in thought.

“Imagine for a moment that Marcus figures out who your grandfather is,” Daniel said. “Marcus heard of your family from the historian and knows what it means to be a Michaels. He had already attacked your mother, proof he knows what your blood can do. So, your grandfather turns up, searching for answers, and he’s managed to find out more than Marcus has about your family history. Marcus decides to weasel up to your grandfather, find out what he knows – maybe even use him for whatever he has planned next...to get to you.”

I understood what Daniel was saying; it made perfect sense.

“So Marcus calls himself Jacob and acts as if he’s with the government in Israel,” I said. “They strike up a friendship based in a love of history. Marcus finally visits my grandfather, which is a mistake, because he lets my grandfather know something is wrong. Marcus would have a hard time hiding the fact that he is a Watcher. But Marcus meets Cobb, and Cobb is the sort willing to make deals with the devil. They strike up a bargain to draw me to King’s Cross – a bargain that promises Cobb never-ending life.”

Daniel’s eyes were bright. We finally had an answer to how Marcus knew about me and how he had found me in King’s Cross. We finally understood, though our answers didn’t feel complete. It felt like there was more; I couldn’t explain the feeling. He continued the line of thought with his own idea.

“And Cobb has a cousin…Nicolas Gudger, who is more than willing to accept blood in exchange for power…which gets him killed when he realizes his daughter, Amanda, is more important than the ability to burn people up,” Daniel added.

“Marcus wants me for more than just my blood,” I said. “From the sound of it, there’s something big in Israel…something only a Michaels can get for him.”