Legions (33 page)

Feeling Athen entering the
bedroom, I spun around to greet him. Seeing his smile, my body
rushed his, jumping on him as he lifted me up.

“Whoa! What’s gotten into
you this fine morning?” He asked, hugging me back
tightly.

“I just can’t believe how
lucky I’m to have you. That’s all.” I said not wanting to let
go.

“Well, I’m pretty sure I
feel the same way, sweetie.” He said letting me go to slide back
onto the bed.

“Yea, but you know how
lousy I feel about my patience? I only went months waiting for you
and was thinking of some pretty drastic things. The amount of
desperation I felt when I thought I couldn’t have you or wouldn’t
have you made me act in ways I never would have thought. I had no
control. You managed for fifty years to have your act together.” I
told him, somewhat sulking as I relived how awful of a soul mate I
might actually be.

His finger tilting my chin
to look up at him, he spoke the words that I’d been hoping to hear
for so long – forgiveness.

“Ana, you didn’t have
someone chasing after you the way I did. I didn’t have to deal with
the thought of someone else possibly getting you, ya know? I don’t
know how I would’ve responded. Somehow, I think I might have been
on the same track. You’ve got to let go of all of that. It will eat
you up. That’s one thing I’m sure of.”

“Do you really think you
might have had some of the same thoughts?”

He stared deeply into my
eyes, brushing my hair from my face.

“Yeah, I think I’d rather
have lived in oblivion than think someone else might have become
the new me. Better to wander around knowing you aren’t missing
anything, than knowing you’re missing everything, but someone else
has it.”

“Thank you, Athen. Thank
you. I needed to hear that.”

He was holding me tightly,
and I believed he was telling me the truth. Maybe, I wasn’t that
horrible after all. Maybe, it would have happened to
anyone.

“It’s been wonderful being
down here, only us two. I know it’s coming to an end though, huh?”
I said, the seriousness of our latest victory still fresh in our
memory.

“Uh, before ya know it.” He
said, ruffling my hair as I jumped on him, pretending to
attack.

“When do you think they
will get here so we can all say our goodbyes?”

“Way too soon,” Athen
mumbled, “Way too soon.”

“Do you really think this
is what we are going to have to do for the next while? It seems
like we sent a pretty good signal to Azazel and his
followers.”

“Yeah, he got the message
alright. He knows that on that beach we were united in our pursuit
for the good of mankind. But it also told him something else - that
the fight has barely begun.”

“So you really think he’s
only going to step back for a little while before starting up
again?”

“I think you know the
answer to that better than any of us.” Athen said, referring to my
latest premonitions that had begun surfacing.

“I know, but it’s just hard
to fathom that separating from Cyril and Arie is the best thing for
us now.”

“You and I know both know
that the threat Cyril poses is still great. We aren’t out of the
woods with him turning against us. We all know that. He could still
become trapped with Azazel’s plan, unable to refuse.” My heart
ached at the sound of those words hitting the air. I also knew that
I was part of something larger that I couldn’t tell Athen. Arie had
made me promise, and this was the only time that I would ever
follow her wishes by keeping a secret.

Hearing Cyril and Arie
arriving, we both readied ourselves to say our goodbyes to them,
for as long or as short as it may be. Our plan was to spread out to
places where we would be less obvious. All of the Fallen Angels
around the globe were leaving the comforts of their homes, not
knowing when any of us would get to return. We would be doing our
best to not use our typical way of communicating between each
other, no telepathy, so to speak. We would actually be using cell
phones so that it would just blend into the other chatter of
mortals. Our goal was to try to stay off the demon grid awhile so
we could all regroup and establish our networks and plans of
attack.

It didn’t help that the
lingering images of Cyril being tapped to join Azazel hadn’t been
executed. If it was something that we thwarted, at least, we could
check it off the list but that hadn’t even happened yet. There had
been no attempts. It was still a viable problem. Arie had been a
nervous wreck and asked me to participate in a plan that she had
devised to possibly stop the entire vision from happening. She
thought being the sister of Athen would work in her favor as long
as I played my part in it. Arie was certain she had a remedy for
Cyril’s possible predicament, and it was me who had to keep the
secret buried deep inside, waiting for the signal. Knowing
everything they had done for me, I felt it was only natural to help
in any way I could even if I didn’t necessarily agree with it. Only
time would tell, if we did the right thing.

Chapter 35

“Will they find our hiding
place? Will they find Cy and Arie?”

“Not a chance.” Athen
replied flatly. He had something on his mind, and he was doing an
incredible job of hiding his thoughts and not divulging anything. I
was getting more antsy by the minute as I continued to hide my soul
secrets as well, lightly cursing Arie for putting me in this
position in the first place.

“Do you think it could be
true or are you only being extra vigilant because of everything
else going on?” I hoped with all my heart it was the latter. I
could feel my entire body tense up as I scanned our surroundings.
It was actually warmer than I expected for this time of spring,
especially considering we were out in the middle of nowhere holed
up in a carved-out piece of rocky Mt. Rainier. As far as caves go,
this would probably be considered a pretty spacious one, but it
certainly wasn’t somewhere I hoped to live for long.

Athen had managed to create
quite a little cozy home for us three, somehow. Not knowing the
length of time we might be on the run made things very difficult to
cope with. Nothing like this had happened before in the realm of
the underworld - a family possibly turning on itself? Impossible.
Unfortunately, we were not the only family it was happening to.
After we told Arie, she refused to believe the claims at first. She
was hysterical and didn’t believe my visions – until we heard from
the other families around the world. We weren’t the only ones. The
demons were trying to divide us as best they could. The Legions
were almost complete. We had already experienced some of them. We
had been expecting the wrong kind of battle. We had been preparing
for the wrong kind of war.

The Legions were
threatening harm to family members of the Fallen Angels if the
chosen victims didn’t do as they were told. Continually involving
mortals only added to the mix. If the persuasion techniques
continued to fail, the demons had begun to lure the family member
into their world with more promises of terrible things that would
rip the families apart, but it all seemed to imply some sort of
mind trick. That was the scary part. That technique hadn’t ever
been mastered between demons and our side. We were only able to
persuade humans, not one another in the underworld. The underworld
usually had a fair balance of power and abilities, this could swing
the world in a way that it never had been before. Unequal
distribution of power was frightening, especially when it was
possibly favoring the darker side.

A slight draft began
sneaking its way through the boulders that Athen had packed in so
tightly to create one of many barriers between us and the outside
world. It took both me and Matilda, judging by her quick movement,
by surprise.

“Wow! Where’d that come
from?” I got up from the rock turned recliner to grab some of the
wool blankets we had available for a moment just like
this.

“A storm is coming in.”
Athen was shaking his head. “Wouldn’t you know it?”

“Yeah, kind of fits our
luck.”

Matilda climbed up on the
pile of extra blankets, apparently claiming the rest for herself.
Having the items that Athen grabbed from our Kingston home made
this feel a tad less peculiar as we tried our best to create a
sense of normalcy. The stockpile of food in the corner did little
to bring comfort. I would rather think we weren’t going to be here
for long enough to eat that all up.

“How was Arie before we
left? Had she accepted it more?”

“With the specifics that
you were able to give from your visions, I think that sealed the
deal. She knew in her heart that this wasn’t something to take
lightly, regardless. You did the right thing.”

“Not that I don’t think
this piece of real estate isn’t great, but I don’t feel like things
are so ‘right’ at the moment.”

The longer we were in the
cave, the more the dampness from the earth began to make its
entrance. Athen grabbed another wind up lantern and placed it in
front of us as he sat down next to me, pulling the blanket around
him as well.

Not knowing where Cyril and
Arie were, made me really nervous. It was for the best. We promised
each other no communicating for the first while in our normal sense
between minds, cell phones only and that was only in an extreme
emergency. Our families were in far more danger being together,
being a family. We needed to stay apart and possibly for a lot
longer than any of us might ever realize. Arie would be able to get
a hold of us if anything went wrong. The thought of something going
wrong made my stomach turn. The kind of wrong that would result in
her needing to find us was something I didn’t want to think about.
Having one of us turn was something that seems incomprehensible;
yet, it appeared it could be a real possibility. It had already
happened to other families.

“Is this going to work?” I
asked Athen, hoping he would hold me and tell me everything was
going to be okay.

“I hope it will, sweetie.
Only time will tell.” His energy was so nervous. I hadn’t seen him
like this in a long time, if ever.

Matilda began her grunting
as she snuggled tighter into a ball as the chill began to get
worse. I think she was actually sensing our fear more than the
weather in this instance.

The flickering light was
making me drowsy, but I was determined to stay awake. I couldn’t
let Athen face the first night alone. Either we were going to both
be up, or we were going to both be sleeping.

“Is there a chance to get
your loved one back, once a turn has happened?” I knew I didn’t
want to know the answer, but had to ask.

“It’s doubtful.”

We both laid against the
stone wall, letting the coldness reach through our bodies,
reminding us gently that we were still alive and thankful to be
next to each other. Knowing everything that Athen and I’d been
through the last several decades, made me so grateful to be in his
presence even if we were in hiding for awhile. Our story was still
unfolding; our history wasn’t completed yet, but here we were, now
hiding in a cave, waiting to figure out our next steps. The others
were waiting word from our family, and it was up to us to lead us
all into victory.

Our eyes closed, we
continued to lean against the cold stone, listening to the wind
begin its howling concerto, when the worst noise invaded our peace.
The cell phone began ringing. The call that we had been dreading
was happening and so quickly. Athen let the phone ring and ring. As
if answering it would somehow make it a reality, while letting it
ring let the fate be undecided. Looking into Athen’s eyes, hollowed
by worry and fear, made me realize that our world had forever been
changed once more. A loss had just occurred that none of us could
ever understand.

The sorrow I felt was
nothing that I could explain. Our goodbyes might have meant
something far more than anyone of us had ever realized back in
Kingston. I looked over to where Matilda had been curled up, and
she was gone. She was nowhere to be found. The process has
begun.

Athen nodded, reaching for
my hand with his left, and touching the screen of the cell with his
right.

“Arie, what’s wrong?
Where’s Cyril?” His voice calm and deliberate, as he spoke into the
speaker phone. We already knew the answer.

“Athen,” began Cyril’s
voice, “She’s gone. Arie was taken.”

Dropping the phone, to the
dirt floor, Athen collapsed in my arms. He had never prepared for
this, and I wasn't prepared to tell the secret that would change
everything. I had promised her I wouldn’t.

CATACLYSM

book 3 of The watchers trilogy

COMING 2012

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karice Bolton lives in the
Pacific Northwest with her awesome husband and two wonderfully cute
English Bulldogs. She enjoys the fact that it rains quite a bit in
Washington and can then have an excuse to stay indoors and type
away. She loves anything to do with the snow and seeks out the
stuff whenever she can.