Isabelle this way. He wanted her to know him, really know
him for all of his flaws, and there were many, so he could
be sure if she liked him then it wasn't just something he had
magically forced her to do because he was experienced in
dealing with his powers.
"Go on. You were telling me a story before I
interrupted to tell you all about dreams and sadness."
"I like your interruptions." He smiled at her,
thinking about kissing her again but decided that it could
wait until she had heard everything he had to say. "So, the
prophecy said that there would be nineteen children born
on the same day, eighteen to our clan and one born
elsewhere. The eighteen would have to fight a terrible
battle to defeat the nineteenth who was the evilest creature
to ever be born on this earth. He had been trying to
manifest himself here for years but had never managed to
be human. The Spirits were sending the eighteen down to
destroy him. These children would be of a higher level or
power if you prefer. They would be able to end his reign
and silence the evil dwellers for one thousand years.
"It seemed pretty ridiculous. How could eighteen
children be born on the same day? There were far more
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women than that pregnant, and no one was due at the same
time. So, the Great One died and left Abraxas in charge. He
was the most powerful member of the society at the time
and also extremely close friends with Veli, his top warrior."
Kal paused in his storytelling to glance at Isabelle.
He frankly wasn't used to talking this much and his internal
radar had just gone off and for once he was sure he could
pinpoint the cause. Something was happening with Isabelle.
Was she having a bad reaction to the story he was
explaining to her or was there something else happening to
her that he needed to be aware of?
"I feel a little strange, Kal, and I don't think it's what
you are telling me that's making me feel this way. I think
I'm having some kind of sixth sense feeling, like I know
something is happening right now and it's a very, very bad
something."
Kal jumped up and went to look out the window.
He didn't see, or sense, anyone out there. He kept
looking—if they had been found already then they were in
big trouble.
"Kal?" Isabelle's voice was barely above a whisper.
"Yes, kiddo?" he answered casually, liking the easy
companionship that they were forming.
"I'm so sorry about your friends. I feel like this is
my fault. If I hadn't happened upon you guys, you'd be
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grilling trout and reminiscing about college conquests and
they wouldn't be dead." Isabelle choked on the last word.
"Hey!" he shouted, stunning her. "This isn't your
fault. If it's anyone's fault, it's my fault. I could feel
something coming all day and I ignored it. I think there
were forces beyond our control bringing you to me. I will
miss those guys tons, but I can't mourn them yet. Later, on
the Island, there will be time." He looked out the window
again. "I need to get you home."
"Home?" He saw as thoughts of her parents dawned
on her. "Kal, if this evil guy has somehow found me, is it
possible he'll go after my parents?"
He didn't want to tell her the truth but he would
never lie to her. "It's possible." Her family might be in
danger. They might be pawns. "Call them." He handed her
his cell phone. Nodding, Isabelle took the phone out of his
hand, and he noted her fingers trembled as she dialed the
numbers.
* * * *
Isabelle hoped she was acting cool and collected but
inside of her she thought she might explode with anxiety.
Her parents could not be dragged into this. They were
sweet, hard working people. In no way did they belong in a
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situation where they could be threatened by paranormal
beings just because they had the bad luck of having loved
and raised her. The cell-phone rang a few times before her
mom answered.
"Hello?" the familiar voice on the other end of the
line questioned. Isabelle wasn't using her own phone and
her mom wouldn't have recognized the number.
"Mom?" Isabelle's speech patterns sped up. "It's me,
is everything okay? Why are you at home and not at the
restaurant? Where are Dad and Brian?" Her mother had run
the same little restaurant her grandmother had run for sixty
years. It was a family legacy that Isabelle had never been
able to bring herself to take over.
"Izzy?" Her mom sounded frantic. "Where are
you?"
"I'm working," Isabelle lied, something she hadn't
done to her family in years.
"Come home," her mom answered strangely.
"What is it, Mama?" Isabelle bit her lower lip.
"I said, come home, Isabelle. Where are you?" her
mother shouted, sounding very strange to Isabelle's ears.
"Mom? What's going on?" Isabelle asked,
squirming in her seat and standing up to pace the room.
"Hang up!" Kal grabbed the phone from her and
disconnected it.
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"Why did you do that?" she screamed, feeling very
anxious all of a sudden and not liking Kal grabbing things
out of her hand.
"Did that sound like your mother to you? Was she
answering your questions? Did she sound, I don't know,
off?" Kal questioned.
She nodded. He was remarkably accurate. "Yes.
How did you know?"
"I could just tell. Where do you live? Are we
close?"
"Twenty minutes if we keep on the road we've been
driving on. Kal! Do you think they're in danger?" Isabelle
was desperate to know. She wanted him to tell her that they
were fine, but knew what his answer would be before he
told her.
"Yes." Kal nodded. "We'll get to them." Isabelle
slumped on the bed in distress for a moment but Kal
quickly hauled her up and pulled her against him. His
strong arms promised safety and she wanted, more than
anything, to stay in their warmth until she felt better. But
her parents needed her so she couldn't fall apart. Not yet,
maybe not ever.
When they had arrived at the hotel, he had told her
how important it was that they not be exposed at night but
now here they were running out into the Darkness where
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anything or anyone could be watching. She gripped his arm
as they walked through the door. Kal let it close behind
them and then stopped to do the motions she had been
accustomed to in just their short time together. He called it
scanning and if it could somehow keep them
safe, she
would learn to do it herself.
Evidently satisfied that they were safe, he led her
towards the car. Once they got to her family, she would
simply insist that they all come with her wherever Kal and
she were going until things were back to normal.
She just hoped they made it in time. To do
otherwise was too awful to think about so she shook her
head and bit down hard on her bottom lip. Trusting Kal was
not just her only choice, it was the right one, and she knew
it to her core.
* * * *
Kal opened the car door for Isabelle while
continuing to scan the area. Nothing caught his attention
and he had a sick feeling that it was a very bad sign. The
Darkness should be looking for them and if it wasn't it
could only be because it had found something else to focus
on. He joined her in the car and started driving. His foot
pressed down on the accelerator and he tried to keep a
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pleasant look on his face. Now would be a very bad time
for Isabelle to read his thoughts. He'd caught hers earlier in
bits and pieces and he considered himself very fortunate
that he had or he wouldn't have realized her mother
sounded odd to her. That would have been a disaster.
"Tell me the rest of the story."
"You want to hear that right now?" He looked at
her, hating the dark circles that formed under her eyes. He
reached out with his thumb and touched the delicate skin
under each lid. She closed her eyes briefly before they
fluttered open, still wounded-looking.
"I need to be distracted."
That he could understand. Where had he finished
earlier? In his life, Kal had never wanted to make someone
feel better so desperately as he did right now. "So, Veli's
wife dies suddenly in childbirth and he hightails it out of
England to Romania to try to heal, not something that is
easily done when an Outsider loses his or her other half and
then people start getting pregnant, but it's not at the same
time and they even start to laugh about how the Great One
must not have been that great, to die early and get his
prophecy wrong. Even Abraxas' wife gets pregnant, but
later than the others. So no one is worried until one night
when all of the women go into labor at the same time,
months early for many and some over a month late. Some
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women deliver babies who are stillborn."
"Let me guess, all born at the same moment,"
Isabelle added.
"Exactly. And now everyone is terrified because
that means there is a truly evil being out there, an infant
grant you, but an extremely powerful being bent on world
destruction who knows he's got to kill these babies in order
to live and all the good clansmen start to freak out. They
want Abraxas to make it all better; he is after all the most
powerful member in the group. He tells them they need to
join together to fight this being; pool their powers to keep
the children safe. But they don't listen to him, they want the
children hidden, spread out, and they leave the security of
their homes and go off to hide. Which works okay for
several months but then the evil infant gets stronger and he
starts to telepathically send his minions out to get the
children. In a desperate act, Abraxas tries to send all the
children to Veli, the strongest warrior he knows, to be
protected but he fails and only three children get to him. I
was one of those children. My 'cousins' Charma and
Leonardo were the others. We've been looking for all of the
other children ever since."
"And you think I'm one of those children?" Isabelle
spoke softly.
"You heard the chanting, you read my thoughts.
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You're one of us, kiddo, and now our evil dude is after
you," Kal answered simply, pulling off the highway where
she directed.
"My brother always said they found me in the
backyard, I thought he was joking." Isabelle slapped a hand
on her forehead. "Holy cow, they found me in the
backyard."
He shook his head. "What?"
"When I was a kid, my brother used to make jokes
saying that I was weird and not like the rest of the family
because my mom had found me in the backyard. My
parents would get really mad at him when he would say
that, really furious and they would make him take it back. It
must be true. They must have found me in the backyard."
Isabelle sucked in a breath like she might cry again and Kal
gripped the steering wheel tighter. He really hoped she
didn't cry again. After a moment, she rubbed her nose and
blinked. "Hey Kal?"
"Yes, kiddo?" Kal ran a hand through his hair and
noticed it was slightly drenched, as if he was gearing up for
a big fight.
"How can I be accepting what you are saying? Why
am I not running for the hills crying insanity?"
Kal could see the intense heat burning in her eyes as
they filled with emotion."I'm not an expert on these things,
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Isabelle, but I feel like I've known you forever and I just
met you a few hours ago. I think sometimes our souls just
accept things as true and right when it just is. When
everything else tells us that something is wrong, if our
souls know it's right, then we believe it."
"Why Kal!" Her light laughter filled the car.
"You're a romantic! Who would have thought?"
"That's not a word often used to describe me,
sweetheart, but I suppose when one's life has basically been
a gothic novel, there is that element to it." Kal laughed
back. He loved the way her eyes lifted slightly when she
smiled.
He wanted to make her laugh forever, but he knew
it would be a long time before he could start on that task.
There was a fight coming, he could feel it in his veins. The
warrior in him had been stirred to life and he was moving
towards it.
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Chapter Nine
Kal wondered if two fights in one day would be too
much for Isabelle and if she would finally insist on parting
ways with him, or when it was done, if she would stay with
her parents and not come back with him to Maine. If that
was the case, then he would have to stay here with her
because he was never going to be without her again.
Destroying evildoers might be a 'turn on' for some kinds of
women, but he didn't suspect that Isabelle was one of them.
He pulled the car into the driveway in front of them
and took stock of the place. He could see Isabelle growing
up in these surroundings. The neighborhood was nice, but
not fancy. The neighbors seeme
d to keep up their yards, the
grass was mowed, and the shrubs were trimmed. None of
the houses were ostentatious or particularly bigger than the
other ones. He could almost envision children on their
bicycles riding up and down the street with laughter in the
air. The street was well lit and even he, who knew next to
nothing on these subjects, could see that it was a safe place
to play outside.
Children could grow up here, dream their dreams,
and live their lives and come back home with their own
families when they were ready. The imaginary vision
stirred a long repressed longing in his gut. Char might
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sometimes make Leonardo and Kal laugh, but their
evenings and weekends had been spent in power lessons
and descriptions of death and destruction. Veli had tried to
be a parent to them, Kal supposed, but a sitcom father from
the seventies he was not. He was more like a repressed
version of various famous serial killers.
Kal's head started to pound, a very bad sign. The
last thing he wanted was to go into Isabelle's house and find
her parents trapped in the basement while some deranged
sicko under the influence of a being he could neither
understand nor communicate with tortured them. He
thought that might push Isabelle over the very fragile ledge
he could imagine she was currently perched on. He tried to
keep his thoughts even, suddenly remembering that back in
the woods in a stressful situation, Isabelle had been able to
read his thoughts. He didn't want her to know what he was
thinking at this particular moment. Jumping out of the car,
he ran to open Isabelle's, keeping his expression blank.
"Isabelle," Kal began as they approached the front
door. "I'd like to go in front of you, but that would alert
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