Broken Wings: Genesis (26 page)

He had a point there. I felt some
of my irritation slip away. This whole situation sucked rocks. I moved my hand
up to touch his cheek. I thought he would flinch from my touch, but he didn’t.

“I understand, Ke. But you have to
realize that this game of pushing me around like emotional play dough
has
to stop. I
am
human. You have me falling for you one minute and then
pushing me away the next. I can’t take this any more.”

“You care for me?” There was a
look of hope in his eyes that I tried to ignore.

“It doesn’t matter, does it?
Whether it is some residual part of Ithane within me that holds onto feelings
for you or something of my own––there is nothing to be done about it, is there?
I choose not to dwell on it. But I won’t play this game. My very human emotions
will not take it. We’ll just call it friends and move on. Deal?”

“I––”

My hand moved to cover his mouth.
“No. I don’t want to hear any more. Can we just leave at this and move on?”

He hesitated, and then nodded.
There was definite unhappiness in his eyes, but what else could he say? I
really couldn’t take any more. I wasn’t kidding. Father David’s hidden stash of
scotch was sounding pretty good to me right now.

“Fine.” I took my hand away from
his mouth. “Then I’m going to count on you as the one friend out of this whole
angelic host thing. I sure as heck don’t think I will ever consider any of the
others in that way.”

Without saying anything further, I
turned to leave. I figured it was the best move for both of us. He had opened
up something inside of me I never thought I’d feel. And just as quickly, he slammed
the door on the feeling. Or was I the one slamming the door? I didn’t know, and
really didn’t care one way or another. I just wanted to get away.

One of the benefits of having
spent a lot of time in the dreamscape was that it became easy to discern when I
was in the middle of a dream. I often felt sorry for those who couldn’t. Take
this dream for instance.

I was in the middle of the angel
observatory, the planets doing a fancy little dance reminiscent to one of those
movies scenes taking place in a grand ballroom. There were angels standing on
the planets and stars, whirling around me in some kind of bizarre, unaware
dance. Now that I thought about it, maybe it was more like the Sufis, who
worked into a trance-like state by twirling around in circles, confusing their
senses until they reached a place of altered awareness. Either way, it was
creepy.

Other people didn’t have the
advantage of understanding they were caught in the middle of the dreamscape.
They’d follow the bizarre path of the dream and wake up feeling disconcerted,
wondering what it all meant. Dreams do mean a lot. They are the hidden keys to
the psyche. I could usually figure it out easily. Since I knew and understood
the dreamscape on an intimate level, my dreams tended to be straight forward,
for the most part. As I looked around me at the angels twirling around in
circles on planets suspended by whatever force was used to keep them in place,
I had to seriously wonder about the state of my psyche.

Ten planets lined up before me in
an odd configuration. I frowned. It seemed familiar, but I couldn’t put a
finger on what it meant. Ke stood with challenging arrogance on the last
planet, the one furthest away from where I was, his feet spread apart to
shoulder width, his hands on his hips. What the heck was
that
supposed
to mean?

While I turned my attention back
to the configuration of the planets, Arianna flew in low, diving toward the
place where I stood. She stopped at the last minute and with her hands on her
hips, started hopping her way through the pattern of planets. I finally
understood. It was set up as a hopscotch board. No wonder it looked familiar,
but I couldn’t get a handle on it. Games were something I never had the luxury
of playing as a child. I had watched others from a distance, but never got to
play. That definitely had to have had some whacked effect on how I had turned
out.

So, for the first time in my life
I started hopping the hopscotch board. It was fun in an absent-minded, weird
way. It was also a bit more challenging than the chalk-squared child version.
The planets gave a little under my weight as I jumped to each one. Two of them
spread apart slightly, making my eyes grow big as I thought of myself doing
planetary splits. Ke was now only a hop, skip and a jump away.

Pulling myself together, I made
the final leap that would take me to him. Somewhere at the edges of my
awareness, I noticed he was standing on top of the planet Earth. I didn’t get a
whole lot of time to think that one through. As I hopped to the final spot on
the game board, it moved away from me and I felt myself falling, dropping into
the endless rift of space below.

It was ironic that I didn’t feel
any fear. Maybe it was because I didn’t see any surface coming up fast to meet
my body. Maybe it was because I knew I was in the dreamscape. Whatever the
case, I let myself fall for what felt like forever.

As abruptly as my drop had begun,
it ended. I was disoriented for a moment while I tried to get my bearings. I
was caught in a pair of strong arms, cradled like a child. I turned, half
expecting to find Ke. It wasn’t him that held me. I stared into the devilish,
twinkling blue eyes of Phobetor.

“I always knew you would fall for
me eventually.”

I laughed, indicating with my head
that he should let me down. “So this is your dream work?”

He shook his head with a smile.
“No, it was a team effort.” He turned me to face his team.

Morpheus was there, and Phantasos.
What I had not expected to find were several others in various states of
recline among the pillows of Morpheus’ antechamber. Erishkigal was one, Marduk,
another. There were a few other immortals I recognized––Loki, who I had never
gotten along with, Apollo, Osiris, and Kali––along with a few more that I
didn’t. I was betting they were other rankers among the immortals.

The god of dreams opened his arms
to me, and I willingly stepped in to give him a quick hug. He pushed me back
out to arms’ length and studied me carefully.

“You have been decidedly hard to
reach, Yeshua.”

I shrugged. “I’ve been a little
preoccupied.”

Morpheus frowned and moved to sit,
offering me a place next to him. I dropped into our natural state of
familiarity and looked around the room again. Marduk was staring at me with
intensity. Now that I understood what had gone on before between him and me in
my past life form, I couldn’t help but turn away from his scrutiny. Morpheus
caught the look and frowned. I wasn’t his any more, but he was never one to
share. I wasn’t ready to deal with any of it at the moment.

“I heard you were successful in
your struggle against the dream stalker.”

Okay, so he was going to force me
to look at Marduk. I tilted my head in deference of the Sumerian immortal and
gave a smile of gratitude. “I had some help, but yes, I won out in the end.”

“Was there ever any doubt?”
Phobetor was back to his flirty self again. I could deal with that a lot
better.

My grin was rueful. “Oh yeah,
plenty of doubt.”

“There was more to that dream
stalker than with the others.” Morpheus made it a statement not a question.

“A lot more.” I nodded, looking at
him curiously. “How much do you know?”

“Not a whole lot.” He looked
disgruntled. “There has been some powerful shielding going on around you. A new
trick you’ve learned?”

I laughed. “When does an old dog
learn new tricks, Morpheus?” I shook my head. “No. It has been courtesy of the
angelic host, I suspect.”

Some of the others started
murmuring among themselves. They were not happy at my announcement. Come to
think of it, I wasn’t happy about being shielded without permission. What if I
had needed to get a hold of one of my allies? Would they have let me get
through? Or were they blocking both ways?

“How did you manage to get through
to me now?”

“It took a little combined
energy.” Morpheus nodded to the others in the room. “But I think also that your
angelic host was distracted. I am not sure we have much time.”

“Which begs the question––
why
did they feel it was necessary to shield me from you? What were they afraid I
would find out?”

“What we
do
know,” Morpheus frowned. “Is that there are a series of events
taking place, still on the subtle planes, but something big is going down.”

“The biggest.” I nodded and filled
him in to what had happened so far.

“You cannot possibly mean to let
the Grigori succeed in his task?” Erishkigal was giving me a cold look of
disbelief.

“What if the Grigori are right and
it happens anyway, whether by force or by design?” I countered.

Marduk was looking very grim. “It
is not only Abaddon that would be released from the pit––”

“I know.” My voice was soft. “It
is also Lilith––Tiamat.”

“You don’t know how difficult this
is going to be, Yeshua.” Marduk was shaking his head. “We––”

He stopped, but I knew what he was
going to say. “I know, Lord Marduk. I know of the history between us, what we
did.”

There was an odd look in his eyes.
“All of it?”

I shook my head. “No. But I know
that you and I worked together long before Abaddon came into the picture to put
Tiamat away. I also know those two are not the only ones bound to that pit.”

“Then how can you even think to
release them?” Erishkigal was very agitated. I’m betting there was a whole lot
more to the story between her and Tiamat that I wasn’t aware of at the moment.
I’d have to have Chaz look into it.

“Because she is deciding whether
or not to have control over the situation when it happens, or to sit back and
hope it doesn’t.” Marduk was staring at me, trying to read my mind. “As a
warrior, I can understand what her dilemma is. I would not want to be in your
place, making this choice, Yeshua.”

“Gee, thanks, I think.”

“What gives her the right to make
the choice for the rest of us?” Erishkigal was starting to get on my last
nerve. “She is only a mortal.”

I shrugged. “So go ahead––you make
the choice.”

“What?”

“If I am so deficient, you make
the choice. Hey––I’m only a lowly mortal. What do I know? Besides, it will be
nice to have someone else to blame for the decision. When it all gets screwed
up, I’d rather not be the one in the hot seat.”

“I deal in the energy of death,”
the black-haired, dark-eyed Osiris spoke for the first time. “But even I will
not survive the ultimate destruction, if it comes down to that.” He smiled.
“I’ll be pretty damned powerful up to the end, but I will still perish. Not a
choice I would like to make.”

“From where I’m sitting,” Loki piped
up, his red curls swaying back and forth with his shaking head. “The angelic
host seems to be pulling every stop, trying to trick our girl here into seeing
things their way. But I don’t see where they are showing any care for what
happens to the rest of us.”

“You are right, Yeshua.”
Erishkigal was cold, but gracious in her concession. “I would not want to make
that decision.”

I want to tease her, call her a
chicken, but I didn’t think it would suit the mood of the moment. I accepted
her acknowledgement with a nod. Heck,
I
didn’t want to make the
decision.

“So in which direction are you
leaning?” This came from Apollo, his golden, honey-colored eyes almost the same
color as his hair.

“To be honest, I’m not sure.”

And I wasn’t. But time had just
run out on me. I felt it before it came, the sound of a trumpet reverberating
through the room, echoing through the confines of the dreamscape. The fifth
trumpet. My heart dropped, and I felt a cold chill wash over my body.

Morpheus gave me a grim look. “My
guess is that the time has come.” He reached out and out his hand on my arm,
giving it a light squeeze. “Know this, Yeshua Star. No matter what your
decision, I will be at your back.”

There were nods and murmurs of
agreement from all those present. A lump stuck in my throat. I was not going to
cry here, in front of some of the most powerful people of my world. I wasn’t
going to do it. But my eyes filled with unshed tears, betraying my firm
conviction. The room started to get fuzzy around me. Morpheus cursed, trying to
pull the focus back in. I guess the angelic host had caught onto our little
powwow.

Marduk stood up and crossed the
room. He reached in his pocket, holding something out to me. It was an amulet.
I hesitated only a moment before tipping my head forward to allow him to place
the medallion around me neck. Hey, he had done right by me before, and time
didn’t seem to be a luxury afforded to me right now.

“
Ashardu
.”

“
Baxtandabal
.”

He invoked the amulet and powered
it by the word of control. I looked at him quizzically, feeling the warmth of
the activated energy of the seal he had just called to life.

“Pay attention to your heart,
Yeshua Star. This will only help to bring to the surface that which you need to
know.” He pressed his lips to my forehead. “We await your direction.”

And then he was gone. They were
all gone. I woke up in my apartment––well, my pseudo-apartment in the Crystal City, anyway. Great. More pressure. At
least these guys believed in me. I wish I had that much faith.

The room was stifling. I needed to
get out. This time I knew where I was headed. Within minutes I was standing in
front of the Thirteenth Gate. For an inanimate object, the thing seemed to have
a life of its own. And it wasn’t a pleasant life force either. It was full of
darkness and treachery. Images flashed on the surface of the Gate, something
that hadn’t happened before. It was a direct link to the Earth plane, and I
felt all the negativity humankind had to offer with each horrible image
displayed.