Retribution, Devotion (9 page)

Passing by his little sister Kali's portraits, he grinned then stopped at the empty canvases. Khamun. He never knew what his best friend's past was. It was on lock. Everyone in the house was able to remember a good part of their past lives if not all of it, except for their leader. Was kind of messed up in some way. He knew his boy was feeling the same in some sense. Tucking his hands in his jeans, he walked on. Soon, more paintings were going to be put up with the growth of their team. Life was changing big time.

Time to seek out his cousin. His DNA sang to him that she was resting. So, he hoped that she was in the process of waking up. He needed to spend alone time with his blood. He needed to see with his own eyes that she was healing.

Away from the hall of the past, he made a sharp right. His long strides shortened his time in landing in Khamun's and now his cousin's wing of the underground compound. Anyone not familiar with the layout of the spacious dwellings could get lost quickly. If there was a threat, who or whatever it was would die before ever reaching the living quarters and main living parts of the compound thanks to his little sister Kali's additional power.

Khamun had designed the compound well. He had opted to follow the reinforcement builds from the past and present. It was a smart move, done to make sure everyone who lived here was safe from dangers of any kind, and that included the end of the world. Calvin slid a hand over the wooden wall panels of the corridor and appraised his work. Each team member had brought their past experiences with building, designing, and other techniques creating their home. Calvin loved it. It breathed them all. Just like this house, the home back in STL breathed them and astounded the new team that was living there as well.

He remembered how long it took to transfer their DOBs, personal intel, SSNs, and Nephilim SSN codes into the house database. They had to develop additional employment records for them, such as with himself. Calvin's record showed that he was a retired lieutenant for the Army. Another file showed that he also worked with the FBI and prior as a cop, which he was via the Nephilim circuit. In the human circuit, he could walk into the branches and sit with human superiors if he so chose but because he also had a tie into the CIA, he was able to work like a ghost. His record also showed that he worked in occasional freelance, which also covered his broad background. His music was a side thing. It allowed him to act as a cover for cases.

Life was good as an Angel. Every occupation in the world had specific Nephilim positions to keep such functions going. Everyone in the house had such identities. Each cover reflected what they needed to have when functioning in the global sphere of protecting innocents, human and Nephilim alike, and it could change anytime depending on the situation. They also reflected their individual personalities.

Khamun owned Protection Corp., an architecture and restoration firm, which everyone in the house had a partnership in. His man Khamun also had a background linked with the CIA as a retired captain in the Air Force. He owned two community outreach programs, a center in St. Louis and in Chicago. Outside of running the law branch of Protection Corp, Lenox owned Temple & Co., which he was working to make international as well as being a partner in Khamun's corporation and an inactive major in the Air Force.

Every Guardian had a vice in protecting certain humans. With Khamun and Marco, theirs were children, who went through situations as they once did. Marco enjoyed keeping his affairs private. Therefore, the brother's record showed that he owned his own mechanic shop, was co-owner of Protection Corp with Khamun and worked as a freelance PI. It also showed that freelanced for the CIA. Marco also had a hand in opening the community centers with Khamun. Marco was as much of a ghost as they all were, thanks to the lady of their house, his baby sis Kali.

She was gifted with transcribing the tech world, locking down any information about their domain, hiding it, and finding rare information. Her Mystic power also allowed for extra ground protection. Baby girl furthermore had a tie to the Army. Kali owned her own nonprofit organization dedicated to educating women back in India and Africa. She also worked with women in the US who'd been labeled inferior due to class. Music and owning her own international tech firm were her other covers. This was why they had to update the newer extended house member's info. How Society had it set up, shit was stale. It had Guardians taking on mundane occupations that reflected their class status or how they passed their occupation comps. It was the equivalent to being told to take a test that made you go to a trade school, community college, your standard colleges, and Ivy Leagues.

These Nephilims were the ones who looked up to his House. Once they had learned that there were other underground teams forming because of word getting out about their House, and discovered that they wanted to link up with their house, everything changed. Kali began creating a global network. Its purpose was to be prepared so that next time they went to Society for the grand meeting, once the big reveal about Sanna happened, Society would see just how big the House of Dusk and Templar really was.

As for the newest members of the extended House in St. Louis, he and his fam had to explain that the perk of being part of a Royal house that was rogue was that they could do what they wanted. This only worked if their House abided Society rules, which they did in their own way. Watching how the newbies' eyes lit up with the new way they would live always amused him. It also was fun showing them every secret cavern and winding corridor connected to the upper STL city connecting to their compound.

The rookies had to learn that there were corridors that were flooded due to the Mississippi River, but they had turned those areas into diving zones. They had to learn that the city was home to so much mystic power from Native Americans, freed/runaway slaves, and immigrants who passed through the gates, that it was a charging zone, something the new team wasn't used to. Schooling the new breed, he assumed, would take a little longer than it did. However, the more his House supervised them after handpicking them, the more they knew they had chosen right. The new extended members to their House were going to be good, just like the new members resting under his roof now. Inwardly smiling, Calvin lifted a hand to knock on the double mahogany and steel-enforced doors, but heard his cousin before he could even rap his knuckles on its surface.

“Calvin! Come in,” Sanna's soft, earnest voice yelled from behind the closed door.

Chuckling, he stepped in with a pause. Sanna sat bowed forward. Her dressings wrapped around her body with her wings rested against her back in the middle of her bed. Sunlight bounced off her iridescent wings sparkling like diamonds, which made him proud. Those very wings were harder than steel. They could slice through tendon and bone.

“Sup, shawty. I didn't want to wake you, love.” Calvin moved around the spacious room to sit in a lounge chair, pulling it in front of his cousin.

San modestly held a sheet over her nightshirt-clad body; her crinkly braided-out hair rested in tendrils past her shoulders. He swore her golden dark skin was glowing like jars of honey in the sun causing him to smile in respect.

“No, you didn't wake me. I so slept enough and I think I heard you calling to me, anyway,” she said to him with a soft sigh. Her hands rested on her lap. She appeared exhausted.

Calvin watched his cousin delicately flex her shoulders before she jadedly muttered, “These wings hurt.”

He could remember when he gained his wings at his Immortal maturity, when he was a full-blooded Guardian, so he could understand where she was coming from. If he had to explain it in layman terms, he could describe it as going to a dentist, having your tooth pulled, then getting braces and having your teeth adjusted. Combine all of that with having a pulled muscle that muddles with your nerves that is centralized around your shoulder blades, your neck, and spine, then you still wouldn't be able to understand the first level of pain in gaining your wings. He was glad his cousin had slept through that bout of it because now she just had to deal with your typical spinal tenderness, burning, and pain.

“Yeah, shawty, it's part of the transitioning. You'll be able to unfurl them soon, naw what I mean?” He watched Sanna's toffee smooth skin flush red possibly in embarrassment, which delighted him. “I'm proud of you, San, and I did call to you,
cher
.”

San flashed a shy, lopsided smile. Her crinkly, curly hair fell over her shoulder while she locked eyes with him. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she patted the mattress beside her, signaling him to sit. She was even more beautiful to him like this. Fam or not, his blood was in her element now and it fit her righteously. This meant a happy Oracle, a blessed house, and a blessed team. She was truly a Queen. He felt honored.

“What's wrong, Cal? I usually talk your ear off but what's wrong? Are you mad at me for last night?” she apprehensively asked.

Rising from his chair, two long strides had him dropping down on the bed beside her, shaking it. He scoffed with a chuckle to look into her worried chocolate eyes then dropped back to rest his hands under his head while casting his eyes upward to the ceiling. She always was able to tell what was on his mind with just a sweeping glance and now was no different.

“No, baby girl. Wasn't mad at all. On some straight truth, you scared me, but I knew you were doing what came innate. I just had to make sure you were safe and that no one touched my fam, momma.”

Shifting in the bed, Sanna quizzically looked down at him. She arched her eyebrow then playfully shook him with her feet. “Oh, so, um, really? Man, what is wrong with you, punk! I'm still learning what this whole Oracle business is, but don't make me try to read you.”

“A'ight check it, read me, shawty. I need you too. I have questions that only Oracle can answer.” He needed her support. Hoped she would do what he needed without any extra questions.

Unfortunately, he watched his cousin blink, appearing confused, then sat back with a quiet resolve. “Oh. Well. Khamun's mom woke me to tell that me she was coming shortly. Maybe she can help?”

Calvin flashed a dimpled smile then thumbed his nose, “Man, now who's the punk, wodie? Naw, this I need you to do this, my blood. Not that I don't trust our oracle, I think of her as family, like another mother. Yeah. But I need your help.” Calvin's mind went back to his own mother. A woman he never gained the right to meet in this life due to his difficult birth, yet a woman he knew was the same mother he had in his past first life.

He had felt her love and protecting hands guide him to be born even as her light faded. With that same thread of recollection, it also brought with it the dysfunctional memory of his father, Calvin Sr., or Walter as he called him. A man who, although he was the same spiritual father he had in his first life, was now blocked from that connection due to grief. His father, who he never called dad, was forever changed at the death of his life/soul mate. He forever blamed Calvin for the loss. However, that was then and this was now.

Calvin shook his head. His experience in all of that continued to push him to honor family above his own life. Clearing his throat, he went back to his conversation. “But you are here now and you are our Oracle. Not only that but you are the Oracle and you need to learn how to work your gifts, shawty. I take it you know a lot of things but don't know how to control or call on your gifts?”

Sanna huffed then rolled her eyes. She crossed her arms around her chest with a slight shrug. “Yeah. Why must you always know me so well? I'm trying but what you want . . . I don't know if I can do that, Cal.”

Reaching up to tussle with Sanna's hair, he pulled her into his arms with a playful headlock. They both laughed, falling into a lighthearted fight before they let go. Taking several deep breaths, Calvin's chest rose up and down in a pant. He reached forward to hold Sanna's hand in support. “Look, baby, you know you can do this. Our blood is strong. You've always been strong of spirit. So get over it. Come on now. Help your confused, broken cousin. I need your help with this. Need you to tell me how I should proceed because, right now, I'm feeling crazy, shawty.”

Sanna stared at him like a deer in headlights. As if she was ready to run at any moment. Calvin patiently waited for her to process what he had just disclosed. When Sanna didn't reply, he briskly sat up. Pain dug into the skin of his forearm with San's sudden vise grip. Her beautiful eyes were frosted over, turning silver before returning to their cocoa brown hue. Her head dropped backward then forward with a soft sigh. What he just witnessed was some powerful stuff.

His concern for her kicked into overdrive. Her breathing was erratic. Tears slowly fell down her face. He knew knowledge had hit her and he suddenly realized maybe he shouldn't have asked for her help because it looked to be encumbering. Both of his hands reached out to cradle her face while glancing deep into her eyes as they glowed golden. He spoke her name but it was clear that she was ready to talk, not as Oracle alone but also as San.

Lessening her grip, Sanna gently pulled Calvin's hand up to her lips to kiss his wrists. He guessed that she could see the old scars his lower-level Mystic gifts didn't heal all of the way. Scars that were not healed from the past lives always seemed to come back in new lives.

“Cal. I see your time ending, but I see it beginning, too. I don't know what that means just yet. I mean, I clearly see it but I can't tell you yet. This is something you have to experience without my interference. But thank you because you helped me understand something.” He was shocked. He watched those scars disappear with her touch while she spoke.

Swallowing hard, respect and sadness reflected in his voice. “But, San, did I save her out there on the roof? Did I really do that shit? And why did she look . . . damn this crap is
beaucoup crasseux,
very dirty, cuz.”