Blood To Blood (24 page)

Soon, I was back to normal
and drifting in and out of sleep. We lay still for a long time, listening to
our hearts beat. His eyes were closed, but I could tell he wasn’t sleeping.
“Justin, what’re you thinking of?”

“I don’t want to be a cadet
anymore. I just joined because it was expected.”

His Dad, grandfather, three
uncles and older sister had all been, or were, members of the Boston Police
Department. “The oldest police force in the country,” he continued. “You can't
imagine the pressure to fit into an age-old family tradition.”

“You'd be surprised at how
much I can relate to that,” I said wryly.

“Don't worry, Angel. I'll
find something worthwhile to occupy myself with. I'm eighteen and just
discovering now what I'd like to do with my own life. It's been a big
transition, getting used to this immortal thing. There are things I can do now
that I never dreamed of.”

I could relate to that, too.
He rolled over to his side to look at me while propped on one elbow, his face
resting on his fist. “You mind if I just hang out here for the rest of your
Mahá? It’s the only place where I feel right.”

I was amazed at how much
Justin and I had in common. But why, when things were going wrong, was it
Sawyer, not Justin, who popped into my head? Shouldn't it be Justin? After all,
he was what you would call the total package—handsome, protective,
sincere, and loyal. But Sawyer was taciturn, brooding, tense...and gifted,
mysterious, and beautiful. And mortal. The implications of Justin’s eternal
devotion bounced around in my brain until I fell back asleep in his arms.

The next day, I felt like my
old newborn self. Coiffed and dressed in a classy turquoise cocktail shift with
sparkly silver heels, I, along with Cici, met the rest of the family in the
Sound Room. Huge in width and height, and containing a small stage surrounded
by hundreds of seats, it was more like an auditorium.

“The acoustics in here will
allow people to handle the sound of your voice,” Mom said as she led us inside.
We sat down in a reserved section of seats, and soon guests started filing in.
There was an air of eagerness and excitement.

Your voice is the star
attraction,
Cici
transmitted.

Moira, Cassandra, and
Shoftiel sat in another reserved section and were joined by Bodiel and
Knowledge, who, this time looked as if they were dressed for a day on the
yacht. Cassandra, openly eye-balling me, was lucky Shoftiel was close by or I
would have torn her head off. Moira patted her sword dramatically and pointed
at me. Whatever. After what the angels had put me through, I felt I could take
anything she had for me.

There they are.
The Council members.

It was Charleston and the
other two council members from the night at the Garden. I transmitted that
little bit of info to Cici. Stone-faced, I heard her telepathically relay the
information to Dad, who whispered very quickly to Mom. Her eyes narrowed as if
she were ready to do battle. Despite the angelic tutelage, my stomach tightened
a little in anxiety. What if I failed the test and turned out to be a screw-up
after all? I took a long deep breath.

In a few minutes, the room
became packed. All seats were filled and the remaining guests stood
shoulder-to-shoulder along the walls. Some people even claimed vertical space
by floating way above the heads of the rest.

Mom quickly squeezed my hand
before making her way to the front of the room. “As requested by our guests,”
she inclined her head toward Bodiel and Knowledge, “we will have the Abilities
showcase now. All abilities that are not visible will be explained completely.
Isis Angelica Clarissa Brown Ami-seshet, step forward.”

Funny how I could perform in
front of tens of thousands of people and not feel anywhere near the stage
fright I experienced now. That probably had something to do with the importance
of this particular performance; if it wasn't a crowd pleaser, I'd be killed. I
decided right there that if this was to be my last gig, I'd give them a show to
remember. I straightened my shoulders, raised my chin, and strode confidently
over to Mom before looking over the faces of the guests. Markus/Little Wolf,
wearing a red eye patch and a lime-green afro pick planted in his hair, gave me
a thumbs up.

Just do whatever Mom says.
You'll be fine, sis.

Mom inclined her head to the
angels and AOs, and finally her fellow council members, before leading me
through individual demonstrations of my abilities: levitation and speed. After
each demo, Dad, positioned at the side of the stage, sounded a gong. The easy
stuff was out of the way. I took a deep breath.

Steady, sis.

“The next ability will have
to be explained first,” Mom said. “Angelika can freeze time.”

Ah, there they were. The
gasps. The Council members stood up, and Charleston spoke. “We have witnessed
this ability,” he said. “Everyone and everything around us was frozen at the
newborn's public performance.” These last two words were spoken with distaste.
“We request a repeat of this so we can see if she is in complete control of
this ability.”

Oh, heck in a hand basket. I
didn't know how to make it affect some people and not others. That had been
Cassandra's doing. I glared at her with all the anger I could stuff into a
glance. Then I heard Bodiel's voice.

She will interfere the
same way she interfered that night. It is the fair thing to do. Please proceed.

Okay. Now, how could I get
myself to that place where I could hear the click? I had to make myself angry.
I concentrated on Cassandra. In no time I heard the click, and saw the button.
I didn't press it, just calmly let it go. I looked around. Half the guests were
frozen and half were not. The unfrozen ones looked around in astonishment, as
if they were standing in a museum full of abnormal exhibits.

Satchel was one of the
unfrozen guests. “Seriously?” was all he said.

The angels and AOs looked
around, too. As Cassandra performed a discreet gesture with her finger, the
unfrozen guests, including my family, became frozen and the others unfroze. Now
it was their turn to stare around them in amazement. The Council members and
Mom remained unaffected through the entire thing. I took a deep breath and
unfroze everybody.

Utter. Silence.

The long silent spell,
replete with unblinking stares, was finally broken by the sound of Dad's gong.
He looked at me with pride. Cici’s eyes brimmed with tears of joy and Mom
stared Charleston down. The Council members were speechless.

Mom spoke triumphantly. “And
the final ability. Voice.”

There was the sound of
hundreds of people simultaneously leaning forward in their seats. More people
in the back floated up above our heads to get a better view. I cleared my
throat, which was still slightly raspy from the heat endured earlier. After
singing a few upbeat scales, I offered an a capella rendition of “Jeux Veux
Vivre.” The guests grew happy with the music. I finished the song and addressed
the audience.

“I can heal with my voice.
And I can kill with my voice. You have seen a healing.” I gestured toward Set.
“And I have already killed, too. A bear. When I was less than twenty-four hours
old. I will not kill here.”

The Council members stood in
unison again. Were they attached at the hip or something? “We need to see the
level of destruction you can cause with your voice so we will know what we are
dealing with,” Charleston said.

This wasn’t good. I looked to
Mom and Dad.

“I am entering an official
protestation, brethren” Mom calmly told her Council peers. “The execution of
your request will put our guests in danger.”

“Your protestation is noted,
Sister Council” said a Council member who hadn’t spoken yet. He turned to the
guests. “If anyone wishes to vacate the room or the property, do so now and we
will relinquish you of further Mahá attendance obligation.”

Two guests quickly exited.
They represented a cluster clan of over nine hundred families in Asia, the
Middle East, and Africa. Everyone else stayed put.

Charleston looked smug. “We
will proceed.”

“
I
protest,” I said.
There were murmurs among the audience. “You don’t know what you’re asking. I
don’t want to hurt anybody.” I glanced at Cassandra, remembering how even she
had cringed at the sound of my voice.

Charleston was immediately in
my face. He had fangs and he bared them like a wild animal. “Child, we are the
law. We hold your life by a string. Do as we say.”

I decided I didn’t like this
guy. Anybody who'd put other people in danger to prove a point wasn't the kind
of person I'd invite to dinner. I looked toward the angels and AOs. Shoftiel
held up his hands as if to say he had nothing to do with it. Bodiel and
Knowledge inclined their heads. “As you wish,” I said to Charleston.

I directed my voice at the
stage and split it in two. I changed the key to F and the rift in the stage
corrected itself. Amidst a few shocked whispers, I then directed my voice at
the windows. A shaft of turquoise-colored sound smashed into the glass, and
caused them to shatter into thousands of pieces while guests ran, flew, and
otherwise disappeared from the area to the safety of other parts of the room.
Again, I altered the key and the shards swiftly merged together as if they'd
never been broken.

More whispers, littered with
a few exclamations.

I then directed my gaze at
Charleston. The room became quiet, as if everyone were holding their breath.
Fear registered in his eyes before I let loose a high G and aimed it directly
at his heart area.
He asked for it.

He fell to the floor
screaming and thrashing around in pain.

“Is that good enough for you?”

I sang each word in the same
note without stopping to take a breath, and held the note until he started
smoking like a lit charcoal briquette.

“Yeeeessss!” he finally
screeched in agony.

I immediately sent a healing
B minor to wash over and soothe him. After a few seconds, he was able to stand,
and eventually sit back down. Once he regained his composure, he nodded in
frustration and resignation. I stopped singing.

Bravo, sis!

Uncle Set stood up and
applauded. Justin visibly released a sigh of relief from his seat at the back
of the room. Dad winked at me and banged the gong. And that was the end of the
“hell” part of my Mahá from hell.

Or so I thought. At that
moment everything stopped.

Oh, no! I looked around the
room. Even the Council members were frozen. Bodiel and Knowledge stared at me.
Cassandra and Moira walked toward me. I took one last look at my family before
closing my eyes and praying the AOs would kill me swiftly.

A
s Moira and Cassandra moved closer, I
wondered which one would murder me. “She’s all yours,” Moira said to Cassandra
as if she heard my thought.

I opened my eyes. “This will
be the last thing I do,” I said to Cassandra before hurtling a high B note at
her head. She narrowly escaped it by diving behind the stage.

“Stop,” Knowledge said. I
thought she was talking to me, but she was speaking to Shoftiel, who’d pointed
his shotgun at me. His finger was on the trigger.

“Go ahead,” I threw at him.
“Shoot me with your hellified gun.” I pointed to Cassandra. “She has to pay.
She’s done nothing but hurt me and my family.”

“That’s not true,
Angel—” Cassandra inserted.

“LIAR!” I roared.

Cassandra cringed from the
sound of my voice before extending her hand toward me. “I have protected you
since the day you were born,” she said softly. “I am Star.”

And with that, the being I
knew as Cassandra transformed yet again, this time into a light so bright it
almost blinded my eyes. Soon, her brightness diminished as she took on the form
she must have had eons ago when she decided to give it all up for love.
Silenced by her almost painful beauty, I stood in shock as her face shifted.
One second she looked like Mom, then she looked like Aurora, then Cici, me, and
others I didn’t recognize beyond a basic family resemblance. It was like
looking at a multifaceted crystal and every facet was a part of me. Her loving
gaze reduced me to tears. She truly was our mother. I fell to my knees in love,
awe, and confusion.

 “Why?” I pleaded. “Why
be a reflection? Why all the subterfuge?”

“Like everyone else, I do not
know if a newborn will be, as you say, good or bad. As your reflection I had an
opportunity to get to know you over a longer period of time.”

Her true voice sounded like
musical bells. I was mesmerized.

“But all beings of this Earth
have free will,” she continued. “Therefore, I had to wait until you decided
what type of person you would be before I revealed myself. I could not help or
influence you. To do so would be deemed unfair. All I could do was protect
you.”