Empyreal: Awaken - Book One (24 page)

Trying to explain, though stumbling
over his words, Alex said, “Yes Sir, I seemed to have scared him
away.”

“But you spoke to him?”

“Only for a brief moment.”

“So you confirmed that he was
-”

“Yes, Sir. He is after
her
...
but for what reason, I don't know.”

“Nevermind the reason!”

“I will protect her, Sir!” Alex said,
reassuring.

“You had better! This is my daughter's
life we're talking about here!” Cal shouted, then quickly dropped
his pitch, for fear of being heard. “You protect her with every
grain of strength that you have, Alexander. Do you
understand?”

“Yes, Sir –”

“Anything else? Anything at all?” Cal
asked, desperately.

“Yes, Sir. Something about
layers
.”

“Layers?”

“Yes, Sir. When he spoke, he said
something about
intensity underneath the layers.
Almost as
if he could sense what was being felt...”

“Intensity under the layers
,
what does that mean?” Cal said, then paused in thought. “Do you
think he has a Gift?”

“Possibly.”

“And you don't know his name or who he
is?”

“No, Sir.”

“Where he’s from? Who sent him,
even?”

“Again, I’m sorry, Sir.”

“Well, then, find out!”

“Yes, Sir. And one more thing, Sir, I
am certain of his return.”

“How certain?” Cal questioned with
deep concern.

“Sir –” Alex began, but quickly
snapped his head, looking away from Cal and in the direction of
her
.

He felt
her
as she leapt and
landed gracefully onto the solid earth. Then he felt the wind on
her face as she ran, swiftly changing direction whenever the notion
hit her.

“What is it?” Cal asked.

Alex relayed, as if reading a message.
“Coralie – she's leaving, Sir.”

He was reading
her.

“Alex –” Cal began to give orders, but
was too late.

“I'm on it!” Alex said, before Cal
could finish and swiftly darted in the direction of Coralie's
travel.

As Coralie ran, feeling the wind against her
skin, her mind drifted to a conversation she'd had with her father.
Of course, this conversation taking place long before she had taken
this crazy notion to run off by herself. Allowing her subconscious
to take her where it may. Her father’s words continued to trace
through her thoughts.
“When we had you, we knew how important
your life was … we knew we had to protect you, especially with the
chance that Xander might find out about you. But, of course, we
can't be with you twenty-four-seven, can we?”

She shook her head,
seemingly beginning to understand more and more as her dad
spoke.

“So, I did the only thing
that I could … I assigned a Protector to you...”

“A Protector?”

“Yes, a
Protector...”

“So, what ... I have
someone who stalks me all day?”

“If by 'stalks', you mean
'follows and protects you from harm', then yes ... I knew this
Protector would take better care of you than anyone else in the
world.”

“So, this Protector … he’s
like my bodyguard, right?”

“Sort of, but it’s much
different than that. This Protector would always be there, even
when I couldn't … and be an extra hand when I could. He is always
there with you, you just don't know it.”

“Dad, there are still so
many things that I don't know about this life.”

“I know, honey, and you'll
never know how much I regret keeping this from you, how much I
regret not telling you. Not telling you has been the hardest thing
I've ever done.”

“Tell me, Dad. Tell me
what I should know, what I need to know.”

“There's just so much. I
almost don't know where to start.”

“Anywhere, Dad. It's not
like I've got a lot to go on here.”

“Right – well, how about
Encounters? You seem to have had a few run-ins with those
lately.”

“Encounters? What sort of
Encounters?”

“Coralie, you will
Encounter all sorts of Beings out there in our world. We are
Empyreal Warriors from the Angel Bloodlines ... we are the good
guys. We hunt, fight, and battle the bad guys.”

“I get it. Good versus
Evil, right?”

“Yeah, Good versus Evil.
Now, we've had a few good guys turn bad.”

“Rogue
Warriors?”

“Right, but we've also had
some bad guys turn good.”

“They can do that? The bad
guys, I mean?”

“Not all of them, of
course – but yes, some do – and that's when they become part of the
Treaty.”

“A treaty? Like an
agreement?”

“Yes – the Empyreal Treaty
says that any one Being of whom wants to be good and remain that
way, shall by the Blessing of the Angel ... of those Blessed shall
be protected by the Warriors ... but he whosoever crosses the
Treaty, diminishes all immunity and falls from that
protection.”

“So, what happens if
–”

“If such a Cross should
happen ... in certainty, this would result in a Hunt, a Capture,
and a Trial by the Elders.”

“Then, what
happens?”

“Well – they either get
sentenced to some sort of time punishment or –”

Coralie stopped him.
“Gotcha Dad –”

“Cor, honey – you're gonna
have to get a stronger stomach than that.”

“Sorry, I'm a work in
progress...” Coralie paused. “So, this is some serious stuff here?
With the Elders, I mean?”

“Yes, the Elders take
these things very serious.”

“So, what about these
Beings? What type of Beings are we talking about here?”

Nonchalantly, Cal spoke.
“Oh, you know, the usual – Beasts, Mutants, Vamps, and Weres ...
some Faere folk, though most are within the Treaty ... Witches,
Wizards and Warlocks ... and of course, there are a few
Hybrids.”

“Wait a minute – you're
telling me that ... no, this has to be ... I mean, this is like
fairytale stuff, right? This is stuff that I used to read about in
storybooks.” Coralie continued to blunder her phrases, unable to
make sense of it all. “This can't be ... I mean, these Beings, they
can't ... they just don't exist in the real world.”

“They do in this world,
Coralie ... Kiddo, these things that surround you now ... they've
always been there … you've just been shielded from it for so long.”
Cal paused to give a slight smirk. “I don't know how much of your
memory is coming back or how much recollection you've been able to
store away and bring back to the surface – but if there are any
detailed memories underlying in there, you are going to flip when
you see some of our friends and colleagues in their true
identity.”

“What? Do you have friends
that are vampires or werewolves or something?” Coralie asked
sarcastically.

Cal laughed at his
daughter's sarcasm. “Maybe one or two...”

“You're kidding,
right???”

Cal just shook his head,
allowing a grin to spread across his face. “Kiddo, Thessla is not
any ordinary town. Thessla is a joint residence in which Empyreal
Warriors have built and reside here, along with a few of those that
are protected by us. It’s somewhat our Safe Haven...”

“Safe Haven? Dad, someone
is trying to kill me.”

“Well, there are a few
Beings and Rogues that cross into Thessla from time to time for
reasons such as this...”

“Reasons such as ...
me...”

“Well, some are
Messengers, some are Watchers, some are Trackers, and some
–”

“... are
Hunters...”

“Where did you hear
that?”

“I heard you on the phone
the other night, with Mr. Cumberlin I think, or maybe it was one of
the Elders ... I didn’t know exactly what it meant at the time, but
now ... I have a pretty good idea.”

“Yes, there are Hunters
... but Coralie, you have a lot of people out there protecting you,
and there are a lot of eyes out there watching you.”

The latter was what scared
Coralie the most.

* * * * *

Before she had realized, Coralie had
made it all the way to the trail entrance that Court had brought
her to that led them to Empyreal Lake.

Coralie looked around. It was dark.
And she was alone. But not afraid.

Surely, she could find the lake by
herself. Coralie felt a pull, a need, to find it. Almost as if it
had a string tied to her. She could feel the tug on her soul. She
began to push her way through the brush along the tree-lined
road.

“Hey, Coralie. Whatcha
doing?”

Startled, Coralie jumped back and
stifled a scream by clasping her mouth shut with her own
hands.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” Alex said, quickly.
“I didn't mean to scare you.”

Trying to calm herself, Coralie took a
deep breath. It didn't work
.
“How did you know? Wait a
minute … are you following me?”

Quickly, trying to reassure her that
he was of no harm to her, Alex said, “No – well sort of...” Alex
realized that was of no help, then began to stumble over his words.
“Okay ... I know that sounded a little strange, but –”

“A little strange???” Coralie
questioned, repressing her panic.

“It’s not what you may
think...”

“So, what is it, then?”

“Well, you see, I was walking, on my
way to
T
ino's
, to grab a late night bite to eat. I
saw you running. I called after you, but you didn't seem to hear
me. I thought maybe you might not want to be bothered, but
something
told me to follow you...” Alex paused, in hopes he
had eased her suspicions. “So, am I following you? Technically, yes
... but not in a crazy, stalker kind of way.” When his hopes were
confirmed by a slight smile sliding across her lips, Alex
continued. “Just curious ... where are you going,
anyway?”

“Would you believe that I like to take
late night hikes in the woods???” Coralie asked,
playfully.

Looking skeptical, Alex replied, “I
don't know. Maybe. But I think I know better than
that...”

“Maybe, maybe not. What on earth would
make you think otherwise?”

“Well, I do know that you have very
strong feelings about lone hikers. And, of course, there is the
matter of the bears...”

“The bears, of course...”

“You know, they do like to come out at
night. You have to be careful out there.”

“Oh right...” Coralie said, smiling,
“So, can we leave it at 'I had an insane moment, but now I'm back
from Crazyville’???”

Alex beamed a smile, letting a chuckle
escape before asking, “You hungry?”

“Starving.” Coralie confessed,
realizing she'd never eaten upon return to her house after walking
out on dinner with her parents.

That seemed like ages ago.

“Let's go grab that bite...” Alex
said, coaxing her in the restaurant's direction.

“Well, maybe I shouldn’t – I should
probably get home.”

“Come on, it's fine. I can't let a
crazy girl go hungry, now can I?” Alex coaxed playfully.

“Well, I guess not, but...” Coralie
wavered.

“Come on...”

Coralie dawdled.

Alex motioned, coercing her in the
direction of
Tino's Pizzeria
.

After a few moments, Coralie finally
agreed. She began their trek toward the restaurant, walking closely
to him.

Court stood watching the two of them through
the window. Though there were two of them sitting at the
restaurant's black and white checkerboard table, Court only
concerned himself with one.

Her
.

He only wanted to make certain that
she would be okay. That she wasn't amongst any harm. But then
again, what was his worry? She was with
him
. Her safety was
his duty. That fact didn't stop his worries. It only brought on
more worrisome feelings to the surface.

Court knew Coralie. He knew her heart.
He knew that he shouldn't have these insecure feelings, but they
were there just the same.

He watched them smile and laugh as
they chatted as new friends. He watched Coralie as she sat across
from someone whom he loathed so much.

Coralie sat unknowing. So beautiful.
So innocent.

She had no idea who sat across from
her sharing a medium Tino's Italian Pie.

But Court did.

Court knew all about him. Where he had
come from. Where he had been. What he was here for now.
Wasn't
that just like him – to come around, show himself now, and try to
swoop in and – ah, who did he think he was kidding, anyway,
Court thought to himself.
With the Blood that he had running
through his veins, a person may tend to think that one's thoughts
would be more pure of heart. Must have been some mutation in the
bloodline or a mix-up at birth ...
Court chuckled at his own
childish thought.