by Rue Volley
“I am the sword, and with the hand of creator at my hilt, I banish all demons back to their fiery pit,” he said, like he knew it all along.
I felt him, as his energy shifted along with mine, and together we created a blast of energy, so fierce that the walls cracked, and a hole opened up in the floor below us. We both looked down.
“Oh shit!” Josh said, as he looked at it.
I touched his face, and he looked back at me.
“It was always you… In every life, in every moment, I loved you more than myself…more than life. Home is wherever you are,” I said.
“Rue,” he whispered.
Lucifer screamed and so did Mia, as they started to get pulled towards the gaping hole in the floor. I looked at them, and Josh pulled me close to him and we pulsated light from our bodies. I made a noise, and he looked at my face.
“You are not going to, ah…”
“Shut up,” I said, as he pulled me back to him.
The wind whipped through the room, hot and smelling awful… stinging my nose. Josh placed his hand over my face, and I barely saw them get swallowed in the hole, clawing at the sides of it. As soon as they disappeared, the hole closed up, and we fell to the floor. I landed on top of Josh, and he looked at me and laughed, so hard… I thought he would knock me right off of him.
I looked over at Jonah. He stabbed Clytie in the heart, and she fell to the floor. He shuddered, as her light whipped around him. He opened his mouth, and it went into him. He shook his head and belched, and I grinned and covered my mouth.
“Jonah!” I said.
He grinned at me and tilted his hat.
“I apologize… I was hungry.”
I pushed myself up and looked over at Johnathan, who lay on his side.
I totally forgot about him… well, kind of.
I ran to him, and Josh stood up and yelled at me. I leaned down and placed my hand on his head and rolled him over. He looked like he was sleeping, but his color had returned to his face. He coughed, and I hugged him, hard. He coughed again and tried to sit up. He looked around and spotted Josh and tilted his head at him.
Josh sighed.
“Glad you survived,” Josh said, as I looked at him and grinned.
I looked back at Johnathan and touched his face.
“You okay? I mean, you were all demon a minute ago,” I said.
Johnathan stood up and looked around the room.
“I guess so… what the hell happened in here?” he asked.
Sam laughed and so did Kai.
Josh shook his head and walked towards us.
“Idiot,” he muttered, as he passed us by.
“I am not an idiot, you dick,” Johnathan said, as he started to follow him.
“Oh yea…yea you sure are, all demon and shit,” Josh said.
“Demon...? If anyone was a demon, it would be you,” Johnathan said, as he followed him out of the room.
I sighed and looked at the ceiling and then over at Sam.
“Where did you go?” she asked me.
“I was shopping, with Sara,” I said.
Sam shook her head at me.
“This whole you popping in and out of memory, has got to stop.”
I smiled and looked at my hands.
“Oh, I think I have that under control now,” I said.
Sam walked past me and out the door.
Kai stood there and grinned at me.
“Shopping, huh?” he asked.
“Dresses… but I let it go. I don’t have to have everything. I am happy with what I already have, right here,” I said.
Kai snorted and walked away from me.
“Girls,” he said.
I stood there and smiled.
Sara… the Creator of everything… the earth, the sky…us, really?
I looked up at the room and grinned. My BFF…
“Omg”…I whispered to myself and left the Graph house for good, along with all the bad… and some more of the good.
I stepped out of that house and looked down the lane. They all walked ahead of me, and I smiled and ran to catch up. I grabbed Josh’s hand, and then grabbed Johnathan’s hand too. Josh looked over at him and shook his head. Johnathan sighed and looked at me.
“Thank you… really,” he said.
“Oh yea… she goes shopping, and we all battle for your soul… and you thank Rue,” Josh said.
Johnathan leaned over and looked at him.
“Shut up,” he said.
We all laughed and walked back to the car.
I stopped and looked at them all fight over who got what seat.
Jonah and Lily stepped up behind me and laughed.
“Your family is a pain in the ass.”
“But mine…my pain in the ass, and I love them…just the way that they are,” I said.
Jonah looked towards the forest and crinkled his eyebrows.
“What is it, love?” Lily asked him.
“Nothing…nothing,” he said, as he looked at her and grinned.
Theo flashed up and looked at all of us.
“It would seem that Mia stepped out on me,” he said.
The laughter rose, and everyone got into the car.
Theo stood there and looked at me.
“So…what happened?” he asked.
“Read my book,” I said as I got in, and we headed home.
Josh pulled me too him and sighed, as he held me there.
I looked at him and grinned.
I leaned up in his ear and shared the secret. The Sara secret.
“WHAT THE FUCK?” he yelled out, as we headed back home, and I laughed, really laughed, for the first time… because it is funny, as was life.
Because without humor, love, protection, loyalty, and the ability to let go… not only of those you have lost, but the fear of losing the ones you do have now… what are we really?
I will tell you...
Blood without Light.
***
Years later, as fall started to change the leaves, I had settled into a life that I not only loved but could not imagine living without. I sat there, at the kitchen table, grinning. Theo was cooking, Kai was playing video games…’whoo hooing’ as usual as Sam rolled her eyes, and I watch my husband, Joshua Barrington, who for all intents and purposes, has never changed… and I so wouldn’t want him to. He is, as usual, in another heated debate with our best friend, Johnathan Graph, who has never really settled on one girl… but there are so many who would have him.
I felt a tingling in my finger tips and watched my daughter, Sara Grace Barrington, run across the living room and out the door. I would worry about her… I so should, because she is everything sassy about both Josh and I rolled into a fiery ball of five. I smiled, knowing that the protection spell on Calvary is unbreakable, nothing has entered and nothing has escaped it since that day… the one that I remember so well, committed to memory really.
I sighed and looked at my hands… They still look young, at 21 forever, but Sara does not know what we are. Josh and I decided that we would not tell her, until she was old enough to understand how important she is to the world. I know that my parents did the same thing, but you don’t know how it feels to protect someone… really protect until you bring life into the world.
***
Sara laughed and ran along through the forest. She looked up at the trees and grinned. She loves the forest, just like her mommy… It didn’t scare her, and she loved Calvary, even though she has never known anything else in life… But she knows love, the kind of love that is magical and everlasting. Her mommy and Daddy made sure that she knew it every day of her life, and she will…forever
She stopped and looked at a clearing, one that she played in every day. She slowed down, almost tripping over a stone on the dirt floor. She inherited her mommy’s clumsiness, but at five it was cute. She narrowed her eyes and then walked towards the creek bed, leaning down and ‘oh’ing’… as she reached her tiny hand out and grinned.
“Pretty,” she whispered.
A single blue flower stood there, brightly standing out in the browning forest. She smelled it and closed her eyes. The flower sparkled, and she looked at her hands and they started to glow.
***
I stood up and knocked my chair out from behind me, and Josh stopped dead mid-conversation.
“Sara,” I whispered.
Josh looked at me and pulled his blades.
“You gotta be kidding me,” he muttered.
We both flashed through the forest and stopped dead, when we saw her standing there, back turned to us.
I gripped my blade tightly, and Josh took a breath.
“Sara?” he asked her.
Sara turned and had blue all over her mouth.
I covered my mouth and looked at Josh.
He muttered something and walked towards her… picking her up and staring at her face.
“What did you do?” he asked her.
“I was hungry… it smelled good, Daddy,” she said.
I laughed and lowered my blade as she looked at it.
“Did she just eat...?” I said.
Josh looked at me and grinned.
“Hell yea she did,” he said.
“Oh shit,” Sara muttered.
Josh looked at her and laughed.
“No it’s ‘Holy shit’, honey.”
“Josh,” I said, as I looked at him.
“Well, if she’s gonna cuss, I’d rather it be like me and not like Theo.”
“Uncle Theo is gay,” she said.
“Oh god, who told you that?” I asked her.
Sara looked at Josh, and he shrugged his shoulders.
Josh and I laughed, as we walked back to hideaway drive. Not to hide away really… but to live. Sara placed her hand on the blade, and it glowed in her hand. I stopped and looked at Josh.
“No,” I said.
He nodded and looked at her.
“This is the blade… now you need to ground yourself,” he said.
“I’m in trouble?” Sara asked.
“No… you need to feel the energy… it is all around you,” Josh said, as they walked ahead of me.
I stopped and looked back at the forest and grinned.
This is where I should be… I was finally home.
I looked up ahead and started to run after both of them…
“Josh! Don’t forget to tell her about the flashy thingy!” I said.
“It is not a flashy thingy, Sara… It is the core and the power that you have…”
I cut him off and stopped and looked at her.
“It is a flashy thingy, honey.”
Josh looked at me and back at her.
“No… it is…”
I smiled and took her from him.
She looked at me and smiled.
“Shut up, Josh,” I said.
“Yea,” she said, as she giggled, and we all laughed.
Grace
And
Beauty
By Rue Volley
The right of Rue Volley to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him/her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it was published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Cover Design by
Rue Volley
Copyright© 2012
All rights reserved
Vamptasy Publishing
To all who have stood by me and told me that I could when I had no idea if it was true...
Chapter 1
The Letter
I never knew that it all comes back around. It truly does, so don’t kid yourself and act like it is some BS that parents fill you with, or try to push it out of sight because you think… “No way, I won’t ever have to deal with that.” Life has a funny little twist to it. If you reproduce, or I guess even if you don’t, you will eventually find yourself at the crossroads of ‘WTF?’ and ‘OMG.’ I have found myself there more times than I can remember, and probably some that I can’t. Evidently I am older than I ever imagined being. I have been 21 for a long… long time. There I was floundering in the biological stew and then ‘wham’, I got knocked upside the head with the fact that I have been running from me and everything that I didn’t want to deal with for much longer than needed. I am not writing this to get an ‘Ah’ or an ‘Oh.” I am writing it to remind myself that no matter what you do, the past and the middle and the future will find you. Great... and so it goes…
“I am Gracie.” Sara said as she played with her doll and grinned at it like a kitty.
“Uh huh.” Josh said as he looked at her and then at me.
I smiled and glanced at Theo, who by all accounts was Sara’s ‘favorite people’…as she put it so delicately.
“So… you decided?” Josh asked her.
Sara looked up at him, with his eyes by the way, and pulled her little lip up to the side. I kept it together, because she loves to get a laugh.
“Uh huh… and you will call me Gracie.” She said as she placed her doll in her lap and waited him out. She knows, as I do, that Josh is beyond opinionated and I totally believe that she tries to get him going constantly.
“Well, your first name is Sara and it is going to be weird.” Josh said.
“Not to me.” She said as she looked at him… daring him to debate it.
Josh laughed and stood up; towering over her… but to Sara he is just another playmate. She looked up at him and leaned back, crossing her legs and grinning.
“Oh I guess you think it’s cute?” he asked.
“It’s cute what?” she asked him.
“What?” Josh asked.
Sara smiled. “It’s cute… Gracie.” she said.
I covered my mouth and Josh stood there, rubbing his neck.
“Oh okay... yea, at five you suddenly decide to change your name.” Josh said.
I touched his arm and he looked at me.
“What? I mean, she just up and decides?” he asked me.
“I guess.” I said.
I looked at her and smiled.
“Gracie… okay, I like it.” I said.
Josh snorted and shook his head.
Gracie looked at him and smiled, showing her tiny little teeth… canines crooked like his.
“Thanks Rue.” She said to me.
Josh shook his head again.
“This is Mommy and I am Daddy.” He said as he pointed at me and then himself.
Gracie smiled and pushed herself up, letting the doll fall to the floor.
“I like Rue and Joshua.” She said as she walked to the stairs and started to climb them all awkwardly as a five year old would.
Josh watched her without saying a word, which is beyond funny to me and I sat down and looked at the doll she left behind on the floor.
“And that is that.” I said.
Josh looked at me and laughed.
“No… she is Sara and we are what we are, period.” He said.
Theo laughed and came in, holding a cup in his hand. He had picked up the habit of drinking tea every day and I didn’t mind because the smell of it was delicious. Kind of like a pipe… which he also had picked up against Sam’s protesting.
“Gracie is growing very fast, her mind is changing daily.” He said.
“Oh… Gracie huh?” Josh asked him.
He laughed again and sat down next to me. He nudged me and I looked up at Josh.
“Listen, she is her own person and maybe she is just reminding us.” I said.
“She is our child.” He said as he looked towards the stairs.
Theo smiled and took a drink of his tea.
“I will admit that I find it enjoyable to watch you tool around with this.” Theo said
as he lowered his cup and winked at me.
Josh looked at him and grinned.
“Oh I bet… I bet you just love this so much.”
“You were a pain in the ass at that age and now you get to experience it in all of its glory.” Theo said.
Josh shook his head and looked at me. I had nothing to say really. I guess I should, but I really don’t. I mean Gracie is the perfect blend of the two of us, from her black hair to Josh’s eyes. Her little crooked canine teeth and my nose. She is beyond cute and it is hard to be mad or question her reasoning, because I am so aware of my own reasoning… and his. Josh sat down in the chair and leaned back accepting the gravity of what we had created together… a perfect little monster, a good one. The best and worst of both of us, all rolled up into a cute little pain in the ass.
“Great.” He muttered.
I looked up when a knock came at the door and Josh covered his eyes with the back of his hand as he leaned back on the couch. I stood up and sighed.
“Gracie isn’t so bad Josh… I mean that is my Moms name, well it is what my Dad called her.”
Josh looked at me and grinned.
“Oh I know, the Gracie part is fine… it’s the Joshua crap, I have to get used to.” He said.
“I find it refreshing.” Theo said.
Josh looked at him as I walked to the door and peeked out the window.
“You would hippie.” Josh said as Theo choked on his tea and looked at him.
“I am far from that.”
I smiled and opened the door to find Johnathan standing there looking all Johnathan. He was a daily visitor and had been for quite some time. Gracie loves him, Josh loves to bitch at him and I…well, I am just glad that he is around. My family would so not be the same without him.
Johnathan stood there, not coming in and I tilted my head at him. Something had happened. I wasn’t quite sure but his energy seemed different and I waited, waited for him to talk… because he has no problem sharing. He never has. He stared at me and I held my hand out to him. He took it and stepped in; still not talking… which at this point is just plain weird.
