by Nathan Parks
He looked at Eve and Isaiah.
“Yes, OUR kind, continually being overlooked and treated as merely a pack of hunting dogs to be let out of our kennels when something needs to be taken care of.
“The Nephelium will stand with you if you will allow us to. We want nothing more than to help you all fight against the Clans. When it is all said and done, we will vanish like we always do. This time, though, we will have claimed some sense of credibility where we—my hope is—can stand on our own and no longer in the shadows of the Clans.”
This was met with silence and stares. No one wanted to speak up . . . speak their mind. He refused to say anything more. The ball was in their court.
To the shock of everyone, including Kadar, Eve finally spoke, “I say we let them join us.”
“What?”
Leah couldn’t believe she just heard Eve state that.
“Really?”
“Listen,” the female Nephelium stated. “I don’t trust him, but is there anyone here who really thinks we aren’t going to need help? If what he is saying is true, then Nemamiah and Gabriel are going to have to head back to defend against Mantus and Denora. If they do—which I would expect—then we are down two members.”
“Let’s slow down for a minute,” Zarius attempted to put some brakes on the conversation. “Nemamiah, what are you and Gabriel thinking?”
“I think Eve has a point. We can’t just let Scintillantes fall to the Clans.”
“We honestly don’t have enough people for both fronts,” Chad spoke up.
“We do.”
He looked questionably at Leah.
“How is that?”
Everyone could see she clearly had her leadership hat on again, and her strategic mind was spinning.
“The Sanctum has a gateway that the team could use. This would allow Gabriel and Nemamiah to have the forces they need to help protect Scintillantes. If Kadar and his Clan will help us defend Eden, then we may just have a chance.”
“That sounds like a plan to me,” Kadar stated. “My Clan will follow my orders. I can’t promise they will be full of conversation with everyone. We have been enemies now for a while, but I know that I can get them to see the benefit of it.”
“Let’s get Ki and his team up on video and let them know what we have going on. They should already be on standby,” Leah stated with authority.
This was what kept her going. This would allow her to think later about all the things Gabriel had told her earlier. Her mind was still reeling, and she now found herself having a hard time looking at Eve, one for whom she had held so much animosity for a while. Now, she had to find a way to mentally change some views and perceptions.
“Also, before we get things moving, I do have a question.”
“What now, Kadar?” Eve asked.
“Isn’t she supposed to be dead?”
He pointed to Megan.
“You aren’t the only one who knows how to vanish, Kadar,” Megan answered.
“I see that.”
* * * * *
Isaiah found his way to the enclosed patio out back. He was worn out. It had taken him a moment to realize that it had been several days since he had had any liquor, and he felt the beast calling to him. He felt alive for the first time, but feeling alive gave him reason to start thinking again; and thinking had not been his friend for these last few years.
“Do you mind company?”
He looked up and smiled.
“I guess not,” he laughed. “How are you, Megan?”
“Well, I was going to ask you the same thing; but since you asked first, I can tell you that I am exhausted.”
“That makes two of us.”
“Seriously, how are you doing?”
He laid his head back and closed his eyes.
“Sometimes I just wish I could go back to the point before my wife and daughter passed away and freeze time. There are days I feel that I have no more strength. I just want to stay numb.”
“That is how you existed for the last few years. What changed with being numb?”
“Eve told you, huh?”
“She did, and I have to say that I’m proud of the progress you have made over a few days . . . but goes back to my question.”
“Nothing changed, but I didn’t have to face it. Facing it makes it all real. I don’t necessarily mean their deaths; I dealt with that years ago. I will never stop missing them, but all of this . . . this continual battle in which we find ourselves . . . what I wouldn’t give to just be . . .”
“Human?”
He looked at her and rolled his eyes.
“You lived that life, My Friend; and even though you may have known your secret, the world did not. I am not the one who has to tell you—no matter your form of existence—that it is the battles that make us, not the times of peace. They shape us, strengthen us, show us what we are made of.”
“I know, but I don’t want it,” he laughed.
Megan smiled. She understood that just as much as he did.
“I get that.”
He rolled his head to where he could look at her.
“So, have you had a chance to talk to Eve? I mean really talk with her?”
“Not really. It hasn’t seemed to be the right time, and I don’t know what to say. She has changed a lot.”
“So have you. You aren’t the dancer that Troy first met in the alley outside of the Vortex. You are a mom and a warrior, and you have matured a lot.”
“I had to. Having the twins forced me.”
“Doesn’t matter the reason . . . you have. I guess my point is that we all have changed. Every single one of us has a past, good and bad. There comes a time when we accept all of it, and we move forward. We can do that alone or with those whom we consider family or friend. Eve was both to you.”
“She was and, in many ways, she still is. I just don’t know if she feels that way.”
“Only one way to find out.”
She smiled, closed her eyes, and just sat there enjoying the small break. They sat in silence for a while, enjoying the quiet and the calm before the certain storm. Each was lost in their own thoughts.
A few minutes later Megan caught herself almost falling asleep; so, she opened her eyes and stretched. Her eyes fell on a scrap of paper lying on the small patio table in front of them. She picked it up and opened it.
She looked at it and then asked Isaiah, “What does this mean?”
He opened his eyes to see to what she was referring.
“You tell me. I can’t figure it out. It was in Alfonso’s notes, but it makes no sense. It clearly has my name on it, but I have no clue what the numbers mean.”
She looked at it again as she read it out loud, “Isaiah 211112.”
“Any thoughts?” he inquired.
She kept repeating it over and over.
“You can’t think of anything that 211112 means?”
“No, nothing.”
As she repeated it over and over to herself, she changed the fluctuation of her voice.
She slowed it down as she read it out loud, “Isaiah two, one, one, one, one, two.”
As she spoke through it out loud, Isaiah sat straight up.
“I am such a fool!”
“What?”
“It wasn’t written to me, but FOR me! It is a reference to a Bible passage, I bet you anything! Let’s see . . .” he started thinking aloud. “Isaiah 2 . . . Isaiah 21 . . . Isaiah 21:1112? Isaiah 21:11? But what are the last two numbers, one and two?
Megan all but shouted, “Isaiah 21:11 and 12?”
“How could I be so blind?” Isaiah exclaimed. “We need a Bible.”
“The library would have a Bible, I’m sure,” she offered up.
“Let’s go!”
He jumped up and motioned for her to follow him.
Chapter Forty-Two
Isaiah scanned the bookshelf and found an old Bible. He quickly pulled it off the shelf and opened it to the book of Isaiah.
“I still can’t believe I didn’t catch on to this sooner! A good preacher I am!”
“To be fair, you aren’t one anymore,” Megan laughed.
“That is true, but I should have caught on right away. I mean, come on! A Watcher left me the message; where else would it lead me?”
He found the 21st chapter of Isaiah and skimmed his finger down the page until he found verse 11:
“The burden of Dumah. He called to me out of Seir, ‘Watchman, how much longer until morning? When will the night be over?’ The Watchman replied, ‘Morning is coming, but night will return.’”
The Nephelium thought about what he read and then read it again out loud. He paused and picked up the paper on which Alfonso had written.
“The burden of Dumah . . . what does that mean?”
“Wasn’t Mantus’ brother’s name Dumah?”
He put a finger in the air as if a light bulb went on.
“Yes, it was!”
“So, what was his burden?”
“Good question, Megan.”
He kept thinking out loud as he started pacing.
“Burden of Dumah . . . come on . . . think!”
“What was Dumah in charge of? Do you know?”
“He was in charge of the Abyss itself, right under Mantus; but his biggest burden . . . that would have to be Legion,” a strong voice answered.
Both Megan and Isaiah turned. They had not heard anyone else walk in, but Zarius stood there looking weary.
“Legion? Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you two. I was looking for a place to get away from everyone, but then I overheard you both as I was walking past the door. Yes, Legion was a huge burden to Dumah. He hated his nephew . . . despised him, but he also was required to make sure that Legion’s tormentors did not fully destroy him.”
“If that is the case, then what was it that Alfonso wanted me to know about Legion? I still don’t understand.”
“No offense, but you are looking at the verse from a Mortal’s perspective that still believes that most of what you hold in your hand was meant for you,” Zarius stated as he walked over and took the Bible from Isaiah’s hands. “When I read it, I see a reference to Legion. I think there may be something here! If you think about it, what are we looking at right now when dealing with him?”
“With Legion?”
“Yes.”
Megan butted in, “We know there are two embodiments of him right now . . . one that has just been released from the Abyss.”
“Correct,” Zarius responded, “the burden of Dumah . . . but then the verse asks a question to the Watchman. I believe this is a reference to the Watchers. That would be you, Isaiah.”
“Ok?”
“Then it asks how long until morning, and the watchman states that it is coming; but then night will come again.”
Isaiah was frustrated.
“I know that! I just read it!”
“Stay with me, Brother. What if this is an indication that the morning is when we thought Legion was defeated, but now we know he is still an issue.”
“The night will return,” Megan stated.
“Exactly!”
“So, basically this means nothing because we already knew all of that,” Isaiah said as he took the Bible back from Zarius and put it back on the shelf.
“Wait!” Megan put her hand on his arm. “What if we only know part of it? We are interpreting all of this, and interpretation is always based upon the experiences and views of the one doing the interpreting.”
“Meaning?” Isaiah asked.
“So, let me take a stab at it! There is morning and evening mentioned. What if each stands for the two different segments of Legion?”
“Then you are assuming that Alfonso would have been foretelling the future. How would he have known we were here—right here at this moment—facing Legion on two fronts?” he questioned.
“It could be. Many Watchers have been known to have the ability to see elements of the future. Usually they were blurry, rough visions at best of what would actually happen; and, of course, with the flux of the universe, many things wouldn’t come to pass. But they still saw things.”
“Hmm,” Isaiah pondered. “What do I know? I mean the world we live in has stranger things than that.”
“True. Look at you!” Megan joked.
He playfully glared at her and then turned to Zarius, “What do you think of her interpretation?”
“It has validity; but at the same time, we don’t even know where this other segment of Legion is . . . the one we thought we took out. We have an idea that he is appearing as Victoria, but we don’t even know that for sure. Second, is either of you willing to test the theory?”
Neither of them answered.
“That is exactly how I feel. At least we have this information now, and we can keep it in our back pocket. If we need it . . . we use it. If we don’t . . . well, it is solved; and we can move on to something else.”
* * * * *
“Shot of energy this late in the afternoon?”
Eve was impatiently standing beside the coffee maker in the kitchen of Eden, waiting for it to finish so she could pour herself a tall cup of dark brew . . . or maybe two cups. She turned as Leah walked in.
She didn’t respond right away but turned back to watch the slow drip, drip, drip. The Nephelium was feeling suffocatingly trapped in a place in which she didn’t want to be, with people whom she didn’t want to be around. She just wanted her loft back . . . oh, and her own, very fast coffee maker.
“Is there enough in there for both of us?” Leah tried again to engage her. “Because now that I smell it, I think I am going to want some.”
“Sure.”
The Vapor started looking through the cupboards to see if she could locate another mug. Eve watched her for a moment and then just pointed—almost sarcastically—to the proper cupboard.
“Try that one.”
Leah located a medium-sized coffee mug, pulled it out, and then closed the cupboard door.
The kitchen was a large one with a mix of new design and old estate flare, a well-orchestrated balance of old and new. The irony of that did not pass up Leah. She stood on the other side, leaning against one of the counters and looking at Eve.
How was she supposed to get past all these years of anger and animosity? Was there a way that she could even deal with the understanding that the majority of her animosity had risen up inside of her due to—what she now understood—her own running and self-anger?
The only sound that could be heard was the percolating of the coffee. Leah shook her head as she looked out the kitchen window into the back lawn of the estate. A loud sound startled both of the ladies; and in a flash, they respectively had a weapon in hand. Each was now looking out the window.
“What the hell was that?” Eve asked.
“I don’t know. It looked like something hit the window, but all I saw was a quick flash of black.”
Eve kept her sidearm held at a low-ready as she walked toward the window. She looked back at Leah who gave her the nod that she had her back.
The Vapor looked out through the glass but didn’t see anything right away. Just as she was about to turn back toward Leah, something below the window caught her eye. She raised up on her toes just enough to get a better view.
“It’s a damn bird. Looks like a black raven.”
“What?”
“Yeah, it’s flopping around. Probably broke a wing or something else flying into the window. I will go out and see what I can do with it,” Eve commented as she reholstered her gun to its concealed keeper.
Before she could do anything else, there was a loud and frightening scream that rang out from somewhere else in the house.
“Lada!” Leah expressed as she put down her empty coffee mug and started to run out of the kitchen toward the scream. Eve was right behind her.
The screams continued from somewhere upstairs. The sound of pure horror and fear upon the vocal cords of a young
girl permeated the spaces of Eden. People were running from all directions.
“Was that Lada?” Chad asked as he and Serenity caught up with Eve and Leah heading up the stairs.
“No, it was a female bobcat!” Eve snarked at him. “Yes, it was Lada.”
Megan, Zarius, and Isaiah were right behind them. Megan tried to push through the crowd, and they parted as they allowed her to get ahead of the team.
The screams continued from down the hall, and Megan reached the twins’ room first. Before the other team could get there to see what the cause of the screaming was, the twin’s mother let out a scream of her own.
Chapter Forty-Three
Megan could not control the involuntary reaction to what she saw. As she had reached the door, she ran in to find Lada paralyzed with fear. She was sitting in the middle of the floor, screaming, her eyes fixed to the right of the doorway. Megan rushed to her; and as she did, she looked to where her daughter’s attention was fixated. That is when her own vocal cords propelled her own screams of horror.
She could not move or turn her head; but there, suspended in midair, was her son . . . but not her son. Lano’s body twisted and turned in unnatural positions. It appeared as if it was on a fuzzy television screen on which one could not get a clear picture. One moment it appeared to be Lano; and the next moment, the young boy’s figure would “glitch” and appear to take the shape of a teen girl.
Serenity entered the room next, right behind Megan. As she caught sight of Lano, she received flashbacks of the moment they first saw Victoria at the club.
“Legion!” she yelled out. “Stop!”
The room now was full of several members with others standing outside the door looking in. Chad felt a switch flip as soon as he was faced with a re-creation of the incident at the Warehouse. He grabbed Lada up in his arms and took Megan by the arm. He dragged her out.
“Do not go back in there!”
His voice was stern and forceful to Megan. Leah almost smiled as she watched him. This was exactly what had made him a valuable resource to her former team.
“What is going on? Is that Legion? What is he doing with my son?”
The questions flew like a barrage of rounds from a machine gun as Megan tried to fight him to get back to her son.
