Celestial Beginnings (Nephilim Series) (33 page)

“I have to know something.”
Tori jumped in, successfully bringing the focus to her. “You seem awfully okay with all you’ve seen tonight. You know; the out of the ordinary stuff, glowing hands and whatnot.”

“Honestly, I don’t know exactly what I saw, but I understood that Gideon was trying to help.
When it didn’t work on Hugh, he came over and tried the same thing on me. That’s when I blacked out though, so I don’t know what happened after that.” She started to look around the room, glancing from person to person. “Where is Gideon?”

Everyone became deathly silent and failed at trying tried to keep their gazes from him.
Walking back to stand by the bed, he tried to explain. “He directly disobeyed orders tonight. This…” He motioned down her body. “…wouldn’t have happened if he would have stayed. He’s been let go.”

She looked genuinely upset, and that made Malachi even more frustrated.
“No, no! You can’t do that. I made him mad on purpose. I goaded him until he couldn’t take it anymore. It’s my fault. He mentioned how you were at a dangerous assignment, and I hated the fact that you were down a man because of me. More than likely, that’s where he was going when he left. You see? Don’t take it out on him.”

Trinity was now out of breath from her confession.
This was something the frustrating woman would have done. Gideon should have been thicker skinned though. “It doesn’t matter. He still left.” When she was about to say something else he held up a hand to silence her. “This is not negotiable. Let it be.”

She got a look on her face that told him the discussion was far from over.
It was only confirmed by what she said next. “For now...”

Malachi had to bring up a topic of discussion that he knew she wouldn’t like, but it had to be done.
“Trinity, we need to talk about your dreams.”

Her body stiffened and she shrunk back onto the bed.
Forgetting her injuries, she winced at the movement before relaxing again. Nervously she looked around at everyone, obviously not wanting everyone to know.

“Why?”

“You yelled out a name here in the hospital when you were having another nightmare. It was Azazel.” She instinctively shut her eyes, but he continued. “I need to know about that dream and how often you have it. Was this the first time?”

She stared at her hands so long that Malachi feared she wasn’t going to answer.
Just when he was about to ask again, she let out a small whisper.

“No”

“No, what? No, you’re not going to say anything?”

Sighing in resignation, she looked over at him.
“No, this is not the first time I’ve dreamt of him.”

Malachi saw red.
If there was a way to kill the monster, he would. She has had nightmares every night for months. The thought that he tortured her every night this way made him sick. He
should
have figured this out before.

“The first time was right after the bridge collapsed.”
She continued, and he flashed back to the time she was screaming in the hospital and wouldn’t wake up. It took all his strength not to destroy the room around them, but he gritted his teeth and continued to listen.

“Whenever I slept at your place, I never had them.
It was only while you were gone. The moment the dream would start, I knew it was him. I got a certain feeling in my gut every time; it felt cold and empty. Sometimes he would take me back to when my parents died, and other times I would be back in my old foster home, but it would always end the same way.” Trinity stopped talking and stared down at the sheets.

“It’s okay, you can tell us.”
Terah was now holding her hand, helping her to continue.

“After I relived whatever he chose, I would find myself bound and would have to receive as many lashings as he saw fit.
That happened with what I now know to be a tail.” She waved her hands in front of her as if trying to wipe the memory away. “Wow, this sounds so ridiculous.”

“I can’t believe you went through this every day.”
Malachi couldn’t even look at her, feeling as if he had failed in protecting her all over again.”

“Oh, no.
It wasn’t every night. That one only occurred a handful of times.”

Malachi stood up straighter, more than a little confused.
“Wait a minute. But you’ve had many bad dreams. What else are you dreaming about?”

Trinity shook her head and let out a laugh that was more than forced.
“This is silly. They’re nothing.”

“Try us anyway.
Obviously, your dreams are not
just
dreams. Maybe we can help if we know.” Malachi had almost forgotten about everyone in the room, but Tori’s comment showed they were all paying close attention.

“They make no sense.
Trust me; I’ve tried to decipher them.” She tried to get out of it again, but this had now gotten too important to let her keep them to herself.

“Just let us try.
There’s no harm in that.”

Trinity sighed in surrender and started to explain.
“I would always be someplace different from the time before. The first one I had, I was fighting on a battlefield. By the look of the clothes and type of weapons, I would say…early 1700’s? Anyways, I never knew where I was going to go next; around a campfire, chained in a dungeon, running in an open field. I once dreamt I was in bed with another woman, which was a little jarring.”

“This sounds interesting.
Why don’t you tell us more about that one?” Gemariah spoke up with a smirk on his face.

Malachi watched as she let out a short giggle and rolled her eyes.
It was good to see her laugh, but this wasn’t helping. “Go on.”

She sobered back up and started again.
“Some of the dreams were good…others, not so much.” She looked over toward him and bit her lip nervously. “For some reason, they were always more peaceful when I was with you. I pray I will eventually forget the ones I had when you weren’t around; torture, killings, weird creatures, and so on.”

“Okay.
Did you notice anything strange about the dreams?” He was not going to let her comments soften him. Find his man…cut her loose. That’s the plan.

This was where she looked nervous, and she became defensive.
“The mind works in weird ways. I had no control over what I dreamt!”

At his confused look, she groaned but did continue.
“At times, you all…” She gestured around the room. “…would be there.”

“Wow.
Was the dream where you were in bed with another chick one of them?” Gemariah gestured between Tori and Terah. “If so, that would be awesome.”

“Get your head out of the gutter.”
Tori tried to smack him upside the head, but he dodged the blow. Everyone started talking at once, except for Malachi and Trinity.

Trinity looked over at him and said, “Everyone except you.
You weren’t in any of them.”

This made the room quiet.
Malachi didn’t know how to feel about that, but he did know that more information was still needed.

“Is there anything else?
Even the smallest thing could be significant.”

He watched as she concentrated and saw the moment something came to mind.
“It could be nothing.”

“It doesn’t matter.
Try us.”

“In all the dreams, there was always the same sword.
It was different than what I thought a normal sword would look like. It was shorter and had a curve on one side at the tip. It was weird. I could always find it because there was a large emerald on the handle part.”

“The hilt.
The handle is called a hilt.” Malachi whispered and let his eyes fall shut. How could this be?

What the fuck?

Did she ever see it at your house?

What does this mean?

The questions were coming at him from all directions. He just needed a minute to think.

“There’s something else.”
Trinity’s voice brought him back. “I wasn’t going to tell you, but I’ve already divulged everything else. Last night you asked about my dream, but I didn’t want to tell you.” Trinity once again looked away from him. This was something he clearly remembered. “I just didn’t want you to get mad.”

“It’s alright.”
His voice had turned hoarse for the shock he just received.

“I was back at the bridge, but this time…I wasn’t me.
I watched myself save me. That was when I figured out that I was you.” She then started talking at a rapid pace. “I didn’t want you to think it was an invasion of your privacy. I’ve recently discovered that dreams are not always something your mind makes up. When I figured out what it was, I was scared to tell you. Then I started to think that maybe I was seeing the world through your eyes in all my other dreams, but then quickly discarded that theory, since that would put you over three hundred years old.” She laughed at her own thoughts, and didn’t notice the knowing look everyone gave each other.

“It’s okay.
I’m glad you said something.”

Gemariah, we all need to talk.
She needs a quiet sleep to relax, no dreams. Can you manage that?

Yeah, no problem.

Gemariah reached down and touched her leg through the blanket before whispering to her. “We’re all glad you’re safe Cuteness.”  

She let out a big yawn and murmured “Thank you” before closing her eyes and drifting off.

The moment she was out, everyone started talking at once. They all wanted to know the same thing. How was this possible?

“Is there someone we can contact?” Tori jumped in.
“Maybe we can ask…”

“No!” Malachi cut her off.
“I don’t want anything to happen to her. Anyone might be inclined to lock her up to study. That would kill her.”

“We need to figure something out. What do you think she’s all seen?”
Gemariah looked at her with a look of horror. Knowing Malachi the longest, he had the best idea of everything he had been through.

Malachi started thinking of the different scenes she had already mentioned, but his thoughts were interrupted by Terah, who had been unusually quiet.

“I have a theory.” She spoke quietly. “I’ve actually been thinking about it since we were all at your house. This kind of confirms what I came up with.”

When she had everyone’s attention, she continued.
“At the party, her hand started to hurt for no reason. She described it as a sharp pain, but it went away quickly. Later, I found out that you cut your hand chopping the steaks around the same time. On top of her not being in my visions anymore, I got curious.” Taking a deep breath, she looked towards Malachi. “What I came up with, was that she did die that day at the river. It had to be precise, but if you gave her air at the exact moment she died, you possibly could have given her some of your essence. That would explain why she is connected with you.”

They all looked at her skeptically, and she got somewhat defensive.
“Think about it. Her dreams are obviously her reliving your memories. Their peaceful when you two are close, so it might be her body reveling at being with yours. Oh for crying out loud…when you get hurt, she freakin’ feels it!”

Malachi stared at Trinity.
Was that the only reason they had such a strong connection? Disappointment rang true inside of him. Was it just another part of himself he loved all this time? Talk about being conceited.

“She can project to me.”
It was something he had kept to himself all this time, but now saw it as more proof.

“See!
Wow, that’s unheard of.” Terah seemed excited.

“Man, why didn’t you say anything?”

Malachi just shrugged as an answer to Gemariah’s question.
Needing to think this through, he stood up and started toward the door. “I’m going to go check on Hugh.”

“It won’t work.
You said so yourself.” Tori, always first to state the obvious.

“Maybe I just wanted to see him…”

The look Tori gave him, before he walked out, showed how confused she was over his response.
If he couldn’t help him, why bother? It was how they had lived for so long. Humans always came and went, so they never became close with any of them. Now he had with two, and they were both in the hospital because of him, he thought bitterly.

Malachi was halfway down the hallway when Gemariah caught up with him again.

“Malachi, I know what you’re thinking and you need to stop.
That is still Trinity in that room; nothing has changed. She’s gonna wake up and still be the stubborn woman you can’t stop thinking about.”

“You heard Terah.
Everything makes sense and things are finally pieced together. The connection we had…” He just shook his head. “…it wasn’t really there.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it!
Don’t you remember what you were like the day at the river, when you found out who you were holding? I do, and I don’t remember seeing that much panic on your face in years.” Gemariah gave him a knowing look. “Why was that?”