by JL Terra
All was right in Mei’s world.
At least, as right as it could be.
They needed to ID, and then find, the high lord. They could take down his whole drug operation and make sure that justice took care of him.
After that, she wanted to take a vacation to her cabin.
It wasn’t long before they pulled into a drive. The residence was just another row house in the outskirts of New York City. This one had a garage at the back of the house, and the door rolled up as they approached.
But they still needed to walk to the house, which meant they risked being exposed if anyone was watching. They could be seen by a neighbor or someone walking their dog.
As they unloaded from the car, Remy waved them toward the hood. “This way.” They followed her to a hatch in the floor. “None of you need to be seen outside right now.”
Shadrach took Remy’s hand and they headed out the side door that led from the garage to the house. If anyone was going to be seen going into the house, it should be them.
The rest of them—Malachi, Bella, and Mei—went through the hatch that led down via a ladder to a slim hallway. It stretched in front of them more than thirty feet—a concrete corridor to another ladder at the other end where they climbed through a similar hatch into the main house.
Mei held out her hand to assist Bella who clambered through the hatch. While Bella took her last step, her other hand was suddenly grasped and she was forcefully hoisted the rest of the way up.
Bella blinked up at the one who held her hand.
“This is my dad.” Behind him, Mei spotted her mom coming into view. “And actually, that’s my mom.”
Her dad smiled and took a step back while her mom grinned at Mei, and then the teen. Mei held her hands out in introduction, “Bella. The one and only.”
“Both Remy and I are qualified medical personnel.” Taya smiled, professional and sympathetic. “Either of us can look you over and make sure you’re all right. We also have some clothes for you, and there is a lasagna in the oven.”
Shadrach shut the front door to the house. “Lasagna?” He pumped his fist in the air.
Malachi didn’t even seem to notice the humor that rolled like a breeze through the room.
Shadrach made a beeline for the kitchen while Remy toed off her shoes.
Malachi disappeared down the hall.
Mei’s dad hugged her to his side for a second and kissed her forehead. Bella wandered off with Remy, and Taya came over to stand barely nose to nose with Mei.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Don’t you ‘hi, mom’ me, young lady.” She put her hands on her hips. “You never texted me about this operation. Not even after you got in the car.”
“I didn’t take my phone in the house.” As if that meant she couldn’t have sent a quick message before going in. “I asked you for the address here.”
Her mom frowned. “There are things for us to discuss.”
Aw, that was why she’d made sure they would have a chance to meet up. “You can translate the book?”
Distracting her mom with talk about an operation was usually the way to go. Formally an agent for the CIA, she had lived and breathed the mission for decades and managed to keep Mei safe from all their enemies the entire time.
“Yes, I know what it says.” She eyed Mei with that ‘mom look.’ It was amazing how well she nailed it given she hadn’t actually given birth to Mei. Didn’t matter. Taya could pretty much do anything. Even pass for her biological mom. “But we’re all going to eat first.”
She turned and headed for the kitchen.
Mei glanced at her dad. He shook his head. “There’s thirty minutes left on the timer. Plenty of time to talk about what we know, and then over dinner we can figure out what we’re going to do about it.”
She looked for Malachi, but he had disappeared somewhere along with Shadrach. She recalled the rusty knife. Was he going to tell the group that he’d taken the knife from the house?
“What is up with him?”
She shrugged in answer to her dad’s question. Neither needed to clarify who they were talking about. “I have no idea, but he found something at the house and, not only that, but he’s been acting weird ever since he got shot.”
Ben countered, “That’s enough to make anyone discombobulated.” He trailed off to the kitchen as though that was all that needed to be said about it.
Mei followed. The second the smell of tomato and cheese hit her nose, her stomach growled. “That smells amazing.”
“Grandma’s special birthday lasagna recipe. Because we celebrate life every day.”
Mei nodded. Her mom didn’t need to say more than that. In the business they were both in, life could be over far too quickly. They had almost lost Malachi, even though he was immortal. All too suddenly things could change, and they could one less team member.
Then there was the fact that her mom was pregnant. Celebrating a life when death stared them in the face every day was no small thing. It took both grace and faith to pull that off.
She trailed over to her mom by the sink and pulled her into a hug. “I’m happy for you.”
“I know. It took some getting used to, but I’m warming up to the idea.”
Mei pulled back and chuckled.
She was gathering silverware from the drawer when Remy came back in with Bella.
“I have a prescription for an extra large slice of lasagna, and I’m not afraid to use it.” Remy plunked herself in one of the chairs at the huge dining table.
Bella looked at her strangely, but with an expression of amusement on her face.
Mei figured that meant the teen was fine. Maybe a few bruises, and she had been through a stressful night, but she was going to be okay.
Her dad brought Mei’s backpack in, and she pulled out the book. Bella wandered over to see what it was. As Mei flicked through it, Bella stared at it with a measure of recognition on her face that Mei picked up on immediately. “You’ve seen it before?”
Bella frowned. “It’s weird. I don’t know what it is, and I don’t speak whatever language this is. But it still seems familiar.”
“It’s an obscure dialect of ancient Chinese,” Taya said. “There aren’t many people in the world who would be able to read it. Maybe a professor somewhere, or a museum curator who specializes in this particular dynasty.”
Mei turned to her mom. “But you can?”
Taya shook her head. “No...Remy has a computer program that can translate the text.”
Of course she did. Mei smiled. Remy had probably written the program herself from some book that offered enough translated text to get a baseline.
Remy set a laptop on the table beside her place setting. “It may not be perfect but it should give us an idea of what we’re looking at. If we discover it’s vital, we can send the book off for a more accurate translation.”
“But that will take time we don’t have,” Mei said.
Remy nodded.
Shadrach got an armful of bottled waters from the fridge and set them on the table. He didn’t seem to be suffering any ill effects from being zapped by the security barrier at the house. Malachi came back in as well, from wherever he’d been. Whatever he’d been doing.
He shook hands with Ben and said nothing about the artifact he’d lifted from the house.
“What about Daire and Bryn?”
Taya said, “She’s having morning sickness, so they’re headed to the hotel to rest.”
Another pregnancy. Soon Remy and Shadrach would likely be building a family together.
The idea that life was moving on for everyone around her wasn’t exactly comfortable. But there was no way she would want to bring a child into a world where she was such a target. Where a sword appeared in her hands, a little too frequently, every time she was in danger.
“So what does the book say?”
Taya came over. “It talks about a ‘chosen’ one with red hair who will wield the sword and rid the world of t
he Sons of Perdition.”
Bella said, “Isn’t that the name of a biker gang?”
Mei cracked a smile, but she was more concerned with the fact three of them in here had red hair. Not to mention all those women who had been murdered. Was someone trying to kill this ‘chosen’ one? To rid the world of the threat the chosen presented to themselves.
Malachi said a word Mei didn’t know. She couldn’t even say it back. A word she’d never heard before.
“What does that mean?”
He didn’t even look at her.
Remy answered, “That’s Hebrew. Our word is Nephilim.”
“They were giants,” Bella said. When everyone looked at her, she shrugged. “I got a book from the library about them. They were the children of fallen angels and humans, but they were all destroyed in the flood, right?”
Ben nodded. “Right. As part of the judgment against everyone, well, everyone except Noah and his family. They were the only righteous on earth at the time.”
“Some of them escaped judgment?” Mei didn’t like the idea of that, though she was the one who’d thought it. Her mind went to that pitch-black hallway lined with cells. The bright light that visited. “They were contained. Held in chains in the dark.”
Malachi looked at her.
“He visited you. The light. And then you were gone from there.”
“What?” Shadrach glanced between them. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s why I’m here,” Malachi said. “Why I was sent back to earth.”
“What does this have to do with the book being in Chinese?”
Taya said, “According to the book, once in every generation, a girl with red hair is chosen to be the sword bearer. To hold back the tide against these Sons of Perdition.”
Everyone turned to Mei.
“I’m not the chosen one.”
“The sword.” Malachi raised his eyebrows at her, but left it at that.
“Actually, I think you’re right,” Remy said. “Because there’s more. About a guardian.”
“I thought that’s what I was.” Malachi turned to Remy. “Please, tell us. What does it say?”
“Yes,” Mei said. “Please explain, because this is very confusing.”
She did had red hair—right now, at least. But so did Bella and Remy. Theirs had come naturally. Hers, she had no idea. It just sort of...appeared.
“The guardian claims the sword, trains the chosen one, and gifts the sword to her.”
“That’s why it appears to me,” Mei said, realization hitting her like a brick, “because I’m this guardian? But it’s only doing that when I’m in danger.” This made no sense. She was some kind of “guardian” for a chosen one, born to defeat ancient giants? If Malachi was one of them, he wasn’t a giant. So he couldn’t be the chosen one, right? “So...who is the chosen one?”
She looked around the room.
Taya had that “mom” look on her face again. “We think it’s Bella.”
The teen gasped. “What?!”
Chapter 15
Malachi couldn’t believe they had uncovered so much, so fast. Over the last countless centuries, so many of the chosen had never even managed to discover any writings about the mission they were destined to.
His mind wandered a few hundred years back, to those grueling months he’d spent teaching the old lady how to read and write. All so she could translate this book into her native Chinese dialect. It had been worth every penny, though she may have done it for free. He’d badgered her for years until, just when he gave up trying, she finally relented. Turned out, she had been a stubborn woman who’d had nothing to prove.
Their time together had resulted in a surprising friendship. And this translation.
The secrets contained therein were not to be revealed past the chosen one and the one who was tasked with training her.
Now the whole team knew.
And yet, somehow it felt right that the secret translation be revealed within his circle of friends. Friends who had become family.
“I’m not some kind of chosen one. I barely know what any of you are talking about.” Bella took a step back, hands on her hips. “I want some of this lasagna, but then I’m out of here. I can take care of myself.”
Mei turned to him, a puzzled look on her face. “If you knew this whole time the truths within the book, why didn’t you just tell me what was going on? What my mission was? It would have saved us all a whole lot of grief.”
“I don’t get involved.” He watched Bella, even while he said to Mei, “You of all people know the sword didn’t even show up when I was around. It only did the last time, when Bella was there. This mission isn’t about me. Can’t you see that?”
“And why did the sword show up for Bella?” Mei waited for his answer.
“It has its reasons.”
“And I don’t suppose you’re going to share those with any of us, right?” That was Taya, Mei’s mom.
Meanwhile, Ben—the team leader—looked at them all, studying them with a measure of disapproval on his face. But he said nothing.
Malachi knew his boss didn’t like to cast judgment without having all the facts. And they barely knew what was happening. Only by reading the book in its entirety, and having the knowledge that Mei was in the process of gathering, did they have any hope of putting all the pieces together.
“At least tell me your role in all of this. Because it seems to me,” Mei said, slightly irritated that he wasn’t sharing more with her. “that you are one of the those that this chosen one is supposed to kill.”
Remy gasped.
Mei lifted her chin. “Am I wrong?”
“I have a role in this.” He agreed, though he wasn’t going to debate the truth of her statement or what his end was supposed to be. Only what he needed to do before that day came. “I was sent to make contact with each of the Sons of Perdition before the chosen one tracked them down. I’m supposed to give them the truth; ask them to make a choice. It’s their final decision. One last attempt to get them to turn from their ways and see their need for grace, before judgment comes and the chosen one dispatches them.”
“With the sword.” Bella said. “Which doesn’t show up for me, only for Mei. Which means that she is the chosen one. Not me.”
Taya was already shaking her head. “That’s not what the book says. We will get you the whole translation. But it’s very clear that the sword appears for the guardian, and it is the guardian’s duty to train the chosen one.”
“That doesn’t mean I have to accept the offer.” Mei folded her arms.
“Me either.” Bella folded hers as well.
“Some haven’t.” Malachi leaned against the table with the edge of his hip. He might seem okay after having been shot, but that bullet had torn through his chest, and he had fallen thirty stories to the ground. He needed rest. “Once in a while a chosen one refuses the call, or the guardian does. It will always be your prerogative to do so. But you have to understand the depth of pain that will be caused if you don’t accept your calling.”
“And what about the pain it will cause me?”
He couldn’t answer all the teen’s questions tonight. It would take more than just a vague suggestion to get her on board. “Every question you have is valid, and everything you have to say will be heard. Like I said, it’s up to you.”
The teen rolled her eyes. Taya moved over to her, and they started a quiet conversation.
Malachi wasn’t all that hungry, so he headed out of the kitchen. He didn’t like being the center of attention at the best of times, and when it was about him, it was even worse.
Ben and Mei both followed him into the hallway. He detoured to the living room and sat on the couch.
He ran his hands down his face and tried to breathe through the pain in his chest.
“Still hurts where you were shot?”
Ben’s question was no surprise. He took care of people under his command. But after centuries of going at it a
lone, contending with the guardian and the chosen one in each generation and trying his best to offer grace before the end came and judgment was delivered, Malachi was unaccustomed to concern over his emotions or state of being.
Mei frowned at him.
Malachi didn’t know what to say, except to explain more about what was happening here. “The Sons of Perdition are those who decide to take the drug. Not those with inborn powers, like the high lord, but those he draws into his web. The drug is a substance made from a combination of Nephilim and human blood that temporarily gives the person the same abilities I have.”
“And turns their hair white.”
Malachi nodded at Mei’s statement. “It also makes them susceptible to suggestion. With one command, they turn into an army for the high lord.”
“And Bella is supposed to kill them all?” She stared at him. “Cut them up with a sword? Innocent people, sucked in because of a drug addiction and a need to feel a power they don’t normally have? They need help. Not death.”
“Some are too far gone to survive. It’s her call to make.”
“A fourteen year old?”
Malachi stared at her. “This is how I know you’re the guardian.”
“She is also supposed to kill the one behind all. Different sword wielders make their own decisions. Some only kill the high lord. One created an antidote to the drug,” he said. “She was a great scientist in the sixteen hundreds, and we worked for a year before we got it right. All the while, the guardian attempted to convince her that it was a fool’s errand, and she should simply kill them all. I believe he attempted to do it himself but was cut down. A victim of the very sword he was supposed to hand over to her.”
He sucked in a breath, fighting the overwhelm of all his memories. “Others killed them all. One rounded them all up and burned the building to the ground. It was a time out of war, so no one really noticed the loss as any different among all the carnage.”
“I’m suddenly supposed to just... accept all this information from you?”
Ben sighed.
Mei ignored him. “Might’ve been a good plan for you to tell me all this before the sword started to appear. You also could’ve told me from the get-go that I wasn’t the one who was supposed to kill everyone. No, I’m supposed to teach a teen to do it. A girl who should be living a quiet life thinking about boys and clothes. Not trying to kill an ancient evil. Not to mention that it’s been my job to be a stable adult in her life.”
