Oblivion (The Watcher Chronicles #3) (4 page)

“Are you all right?” He asks, his eyes examining every inch of my face to check for damage.

I nod.  “I’m fine now.”

Mason leans his head down to mine until our foreheads touch, taking a much needed steadying breath.  I reach up and cup his face on either side before tilting my lips in towards his.  Mason doesn’t need much coaxing and crushes his lips to mine, each of us desperate to feel the other, confirming that we’re both still alive.

I wrap my arms around Mason’s neck pulling him as deep as I can into me.  His silky smooth tongue is demanding of mine, telling me he wants more than just a kiss.  I wrap one leg around his hip. Mason slides his hand against that leg’s thigh and easily lifts me until both my legs are wrapped around his waist and he has me firmly wedged between him and the cement wall behind me.  I feel his manhood grow large against me and smile against his lips, savoring the knowledge that the man I love can be affected by me so quickly.  I don’t dare lift my mouth from Mason’s even though I’m desperate to take a real breath.  I don’t want to lose this moment.

We hear someone clear their throat.

I know Mason heard them too but he refuses to let me go instantly.  Instead, he slows the kiss and reluctantly pulls his lips away from mine.  When he looks at me, his eyes are glazed over with pent up desire, and I know if we had remained alone for just a little while longer, we would have finally physically consummated our love for one another.

Strangely enough, the thought of us finally making love in the middle of a rather unromantic concrete hallway is just fine with me.  I realize I don’t need the flower strewn bed with silky sheets and candlelight.  I don’t need a romantic setting to make the moment special.  All I need is Mason.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Baruch says with Josh standing by his side, shuffling his feet nervously.  “But I didn’t think the boy needed a first hand demonstration of the birds and the bees.”

I feel myself blush under Baruch’s knowing gaze.  And poor Josh just looks shyly embarrassed.

“Joshua?” Mason questions staring at the double of our young friend from back home.

“Josh,” he corrects.  “Just Josh here.  How do we know each other from where you come from?”

“I saved Joshua from a game of Bait a few years back,” Mason says, and I realize this is the first time I’ve heard this story.  “Ever since then he’s lived and worked with me because he didn’t have any other family.  Most of the time the Watchers from my world pick on the homeless to use as bait in their games since no one would notice their disappearance.”

“Sounds kind of like the way I ended up here,” Josh says, realizing he and his counterpart on our Earth have very similar histories.

“We should probably go in,” Baruch suggests.  “I think we have a lot of information to exchange with each other.”

Mason takes my hand and we follow Josh and Baruch back into the room.

Brand stands from his chair at the table when we approach.  This version of Brand still has the same easy smile of the one I know from our world and it reminds me of how comfortable I’ve always felt in Lilly’s husband’s presence.  Yet, unlike the Brand I’ve met, this Brand looks younger, somewhere in his early twenties would be my guess.

“Brand, this is Jess,” Mason says in way of introduction.

Brand holds out his hand.  “I’m sorry for the subterfuge earlier.  I hope we didn’t startle you too much.”

I hear Isaiah cough from his position behind the kitchen island.

I smile.

“I can usually take care of myself,” I say confidently.

“Yes, that’s what Isaiah told me,” Brand replies, watching his friend’s slow progress to the table with an amused twinkle in his eyes.

“Please sit down,” Brand says to us.  “We have a lot to discuss.”

Mason and I sit beside each other across from the three Watchers.  Josh makes his way to the kitchen area and starts a new pot of coffee.

Mason keeps hold of my hand and rests it on his thigh.  I smile and look over at him.  He looks at me and winks.  I wink back.  I feel safe in the knowledge that as long as we’re together there’s nothing we can’t handle.

“So I take it you two are a couple,” Brand says.

Baruch clears his throat, reminding me he’s seen this statement played out as fact.

“Yes,” I answer, attempting to ignore Baruch.  “Speaking of couples, where’s Lilly?”

Brand looks confused by my question.  “Who’s Lilly?”

“You don’t know who Lilly is?” I ask, sure I look just as confused as Brand now.

“No, I have no idea who you’re talking about,” Brand says, his eyebrows lowering in concern.  “Is she someone important to me in your reality?”

Mason and I look at one another.

“How can Lilly not exist here?” I ask him.  “I thought she would be important in every reality considering what she did.”

“I’m not sure why she’s not here,” Mason tells me, looking just as confused as I am before returning his attention back to Brand.

“I’m going to name some people to you,” Mason tells Brand.  “Let me know if any of them ring a bell.  Caylin, Will, Tara, Malik, Utha Mae.  Do you know any of those people?”

“I know a Will,” Brand answers.  “He’s a rebellion angel who works for Lucifer.  And I know a Malik.  He’s the leader of the fae here.  The others don’t sound familiar to me.  Should they?”

Mason’s eyes become hooded and I know this new information troubles him.

“Can you tell me how the Tear was made on this Earth?” Mason asks Brand.

“What do you mean made?” Brand asks back, looking between Mason and me.  “It just appeared in our sky one night.  No one knows where it came from.”

Mason looks down at the table contemplating Brand’s answer.  I watch as he closes his eyes and shakes his head as if he is just now realizing something very important.

“I never knew,” Mason whispers as if talking to himself.

I squeeze Mason’s hand making him look over at me. 

“Never knew what?” I ask, not liking the way he’s reacting to whatever conclusion he’s come to.  “What’s wrong?”

Mason looks at me and I can tell he’s in a state of complete and utter shock.

“The Earth we live on,” he says, measuring his words carefully.  “The reality we exist in… it’s the Origin.”

I feel more than see the other three Watchers in the room tense at Mason’s statement.

“The Origin?” Baruch questions.  “How do you know that for certain?”

“It’s the only explanation that makes sense.  We know how the Tear was made because it was made in our reality.  It explains why Lilly doesn’t exist here.  She wasn’t needed in this reality, only ours.”

“Does that mean I don’t exist here either?” I ask.

“That would be my guess,” Mason says.  “Albert couldn’t find you in the database so odds are you don’t have a counterpart here.  You’re not needed here.  You’re only needed in our reality.”

“You still haven’t told me who Lilly is and why you expected her to be here with me,” Brand says.  “And if you could throw in an explanation of how the Tear was made, we’d appreciate it.”

“Lilly is your wife in our reality,” Mason says, not trying to sugar coat the facts no matter how surprising they might sound to this Brand.  “She is the human child of Michael.  In our reality, she stopped Lucifer from destroying the universe, but while he was trying to collapse the veils he tore a hole between them instead which formed the Tear.”

“We always wondered what happened to make it just appear one night.  It never occurred to me that an event in the Origin was the cause.  So this Lilly, my wife in your reality, is the child of an archangel?” Brand asks like such a possibility is a foreign concept to him.  “I’ve never heard of such a coupling being allowed to happen.”

Mason looks over at me silently questioning if he should say what I am too.  I nod seeing no reason to hide the information from the three sitting across from us.

“In our reality,” Mason begins, “God has sent the seven archangels to our Earth.  They melded their souls with human ones.  Jess’s soul is bonded to Michael’s soul.”  Mason pauses to let that information sink in before he continues.  “At some point on our Earth, they’re meant to fight Lucifer and the princes of Hell to stop them from doing something.  We haven’t quite figured out what that something is yet but we’re pretty confident it won’t be pleasant for any of us.”

“Then why are you here?” Brand asks.  “If Jess is needed in the Origin, why come to our reality?”

“My sister traveled here,” I tell them.  “Apparently she and Malcolm’s son traded places when the Tear opened earlier this evening.  We came here to get her and take her back home.”

“And how do you plan to get back to your Earth?” Baruch asks.

“God will open the Tear for us when the time is right,” I say.

“You speak directly with Him?” Isaiah asks, eagerly leaning forward in his chair to hear my answer.

“That’s a recent development,” I say.  “To be honest I just started to believe in his existence.”

I almost laugh at the expressions on the faces of the angels across from me.  Confused was too small of a word to explain their reaction to my blunt honesty.

“But you carry Michael’s soul,” Brand says, voicing what I have to presume they’re all thinking.  “Why haven’t you believed in Him before now?”

“It’s a long story,” I say.

“One that isn’t exactly pertinent at the moment,” Mason tells them, saving me from having to go into any details about my life thus far.  “But I have a few questions which are.”

“You can ask us anything,” Brand says openly.

“Malcolm told us I was killed in the war with Lucifer in this reality.”

“Yes, that’s correct.  Lucifer killed you himself actually.”

“If I’m dead here, who became the leader of the Watchers when you were sent to Earth?”

“Justin was our leader.” Brand says the name with undisguised loathing. 

“What happened when you came to Earth under his command?”

“At first things were fine.  We were teaching the humans what they needed to know like we were meant to.  But many of us ended up falling in love and taking human wives.  In fact, Justin encouraged it.  He said our father would understand.  But of course, He didn’t.  When God cursed us and our families, Justin urged us to give into what our father made us into.  It was an extremely dark period in our history.  Most of the Watchers followed Justin not seeing any point in trying to fight against the need to drink human blood and let their children feed on the corpses.  After a while, Lucifer seemed to think the Watchers who became vampires were drawing too much unwanted attention to themselves with the trail of bodies they were leaving in their wake.  I’m not sure what happened between him and Justin but Lucifer must have grown tired of trying to reason with him because he killed Justin.  After that, Lucifer reined in the vampire Watchers and took control of them.  They remained in the shadows for thousands of years, just legend to the humans here.  That is until the Tear appeared.  Lucifer seemed to take it as a sign of some sort and used the confusion the humans were in to take this world over under the guise of trying to help.  I take it this isn’t the way it happened on your Earth.”

“No,” Mason says.  “I was the leader of the Watchers on our Earth not Justin.”

“Did the majority of the Watchers turn to vampirism after the curse?”

“No.  Most of them abstained from it like I did.”

“Then I wish you had been our leader here too.”  Brand sighs over the missed opportunity.  “Maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess if you had survived the war and led us like you were meant to.”

Mason becomes still and quiet, letting what Brand has said sink in.

“Could you guys give us a minute alone?” I ask, knowing Mason needs some time with his thoughts.

Isaiah mumbles something about Josh and coffee.  Brand and Baruch follow him into the kitchen area. 

I turn to Mason and bring his hand to my lips to plant a small kiss, gently bringing him out of his troubled reverie.

“Are you ok?” I ask, worried about him because he hasn’t moved since hearing how different the Watchers’ history is on this Earth.  I’m not even completely sure he’s taken a breath since learning what would have happened on our Earth if he never existed.

“I always thought I did something wrong to make the Watchers go against God’s law,” he finally says.  “But it doesn’t look like it would have mattered who their commander was.  They would have done it anyway.”

“How many of the Watchers gave into the hunger for blood on our Earth when He cursed you?”

“Forty-four.”

I’m not surprised to hear Mason recite an exact number.  He would have carried the guilt of their turning into vampires with him from the beginning.

“Forty- four out of about two hundred?  Sounds like you had a greater influence on them than you thought.  If you had given in like this Justin and encouraged the others to do so too, it’s possible our reality would be similar to this one.  But you didn’t give into your hunger like he did.  You set a better example for your Watchers.”

Mason finally looks over at me.  “For so many years, I thought I let them all down.”

“Well, the ones who did turn into vampires didn’t help your guilt issues.  To be honest, I think they were just jealous that the rest of you had so much more self-control than they did.  Plus, you still had hope that God would forgive you one day if you didn’t give into your urges.  That hope was lost to them the first time they drank human blood.  They even got a second chance directly from God, Mason.  They could have earned forgiveness after the Tear was made but they chose not to work for it.  You have nothing to feel guilty about.  You can’t control what others do with their lives.”

Mason sits and contemplates my words.  Finally, he nods.

“You’re right.  I’m not responsible for the way their lives turned out.  It never even occurred to me that I wouldn’t exist in other realities.”

“You’ve been feeling guilty about the Watchers in all the realities?” I say, fully realizing for the first time what Mason has been living with for all these years.  “No wonder you have guilt issues.”

I let Mason sit quietly for a moment to let his self-realization sink into his psyche.  I now understand why God wanted Mason to come with me to this reality.  If he hadn’t, I’m not sure he would have ever found a way around the guilt he’s been carrying inside his heart for all these years.