by G. P. Ching
Ethan used his power to lower Abigail, then Gideon into the holes he and Dane had dug. Once the bodies were settled, Cheveyo laid the dagger in the smaller hole next to Gideon.
Three carved pieces of wood served as markers. They did not bear the Soulkeepers’ names. To do so would be inviting desecration. Instead, Lillian had used her knife skills to carve ornate patterns into the oak. Abigail’s marker depicted a mighty tree with twisted branches that bore strange but weighty fruit. The focal point of Gideon’s was the sun with beams of light over a set of outstretched wings. Lee’s was a twisting dragon around the Chinese symbol for warrior.
Father Raymond stepped forward to the edges of the grave. “Let us commend Abigail and Gideon Newman, and Confucius Lee to the mercy of God.”
Jacob turned to Lillian as Father Raymond continued to speak. “Was that his real name? Confucius?”
“He always thought it was too formal,” Lillian whispered. “He once told me and the other student in the dojo to call him Bob.”
“You guys were close. How are you doing with all of this?” Jacob asked.
Lillian pressed her lips together before answering. “Before I was taken, we celebrated Lee’s eighty-fifth birthday. I guess I always knew he was on borrowed time. This is how he would have wanted to go. He held the passageway open so that all of us could get out. He died a hero and a warrior. No better way to go, if you ask me.”
Jacob nodded and refocused on Father Raymond.
“We therefore commit Abigail, Gideon, and Master Lee’s bodies to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life." Father Raymond motioned to Ethan who filled in the holes over the bodies and Master Lee’s weapon. “Would anyone like to say a few words?”
Malini walked to the front of the graves and unfolded a piece of paper from her pocket. With a deep breath, she began to read.
“Today, the birds fall silent
and the sun refuses to shine.
The grass below lays dormant.
Lost these friends of mine.
Every head does bow
and darkness presses in,
the water slows and stills
a new phase does begin.
They say the world is turning.
I’m not sure I can agree.
The sadness of your leaving
seems its own eternity.
In time we will move on
with the work you have begun.
We’ll recover from this loss
and ignite the fading sun.
But today the rain does fall,
and creeps in the chill of night.
The loss of you reigns on
Goodbye …
my friends
my warriors
my confidants
until we meet again.”
Malini returned to her place by Jacob’s side while the other Soulkeepers shifted uneasily, wiping icy tears and sniffing cold noses.
“That was beautiful. Did you write that yourself?” Jacob asked.
“Shhh.”
“And now, Bonnie and Samantha Guillian have offered to sing.” Father Raymond moved aside and the twins took their spot at the front of the group. The snow picked up again, creating a mystical backdrop to the twins’ red hair. The two shrugged out of their coats and handed them to Ghost.
The two girls wore identical purple dresses with silver ballet flats, their fiery red hair cascading in loose waves across their shoulders. Gracefully, they began to circle each other, dancing in mirror image, a lyrical, sweeping ballet. Within the wave of pointed toes, arched backs, and swirling arms, Bonnie began to sing in a low and hollow voice that seemed to come from somewhere other than her petite frame. “When peace like a river, attendeth my way.”
Samantha followed with, “When sorrow like sea billows roll.”
“Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to know.” Bonnie twirled and reached for her sister.
“It is well, it is well, with my soul,” they both sang together.
Even Jacob knew this song. It Is Well With My Soul by Horatio Spafford. They sang it often at the Laudners’ church. The meaning wasn’t lost on him. He’d heard that the author had written the hymn after losing everything.
As the twins continued the hymn, Jacob caught himself drifting. He listened with his Soulkeeper ears, expecting the Watchers to attack at any moment. With Cord locked up downstairs, how long until they attacked? For all he knew, they could be tracking the Watcher right now.
Reality hit him like a blunt fist. They’d lost Eden! Lucifer could sense any of their souls if he wanted to, or demand their astral-projected presence as he had Malini’s. Why hadn’t he? Suddenly, the thought that they hadn’t been discovered seemed impossible. Were they all on borrowed time?
He squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn’t think that way. He needed to trust that God led them here for a reason and that everything was unfolding as it should, a tall order considering. With a sigh, he opened his eyes.
The twins finished the hymn and joined hands, using their power to form first into the image of Master Lee, then Gideon, and then Abigail. The waterworks started again when he saw Abigail. He wasn’t embarrassed though. There wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd. Even Hope, snuggled on Grace’s shoulder, began to fuss.
Bonnie and Samantha ended their tribute, transforming into themselves again and returned to their places among the other Soulkeepers. Father Raymond, in a state of amazement after watching the twins, shook off his awestruck stupor to say one final prayer before dismissing them. In silence, the group trudged toward the rectory, shoulders slumped and faces drawn.
Malini stopped Jacob as they reached the threshold, allowing the others to go on ahead. “I don’t think I can stand to lose anyone else, Jacob.”
He wrapped his arms around her. “Then let’s do our best to make sure this never happens again. Lucifer doesn’t know what he’s started here. When you push the Soulkeepers, they push back.”
In the circle of his arms, Malini stiffened. Tipping her face up, she gritted her teeth. “You are right about that, Jacob. We will fight back, and Lucifer has no idea what he’s in for.”
Chapter 33
New Rules
Bonnie needed to clean the kitchen. Everyone grieved in his or her own way, and hers was sanitation. A quick exploration of the kitchen rewarded her with powdered scrub and a scouring pad. Cleaning-therapy tools.
The island seemed like the logical place to begin. Even though Grace and Lillian placed bedding under Abigail before the birth, the thought of someone delivering a baby and then passing away in the same place they might have to prepare food grossed her out. She couldn’t blame her mother though. No other place in the church was as clean, safe, or private. Malini and the others did the best with what they had.
As she scrubbed the stainless steel, she thought the counter looked a lot like a surgical table. She closed her eyes against a barrage of images of how else they might have to use the island in the future. This was war. Would they be setting broken bones here? Digging out shrapnel?
“I heard you singing,” Cord said from the pantry.
Bonnie jumped back, heart hammering in her chest. “Oh, you’re awake.”
“Yes. I have been.” He pointed at the mat of black hair at the back of his head. “All healed.”
Cautiously, Bonnie glanced down to make sure the barred door to the pantry was locked, then turned back toward the sink to ring out her wet rag. She rinsed off the counter she’d just scrubbed, the scent of bleach burning in her nostrils.
“I heard you singing,” Cord said again. “You have a beautiful voice.”
Bonnie paused for a moment, then continued her scrubbing.
“Your sister was singing too, but I could tell when it was you.”
Face tightening in annoyance, Bonnie rinsed the rag out again. “We’re identical twins. We look, sound, and act exactly alike. There’s no way you could tell our
voices apart from a distance.”
“You don’t look exactly alike.”
“No?” she asked, placing a fist on her hip.
“Not to me.”
Bonnie threw the rag into the sink and turned the full force of her stare on him, crossing her arms over her chest. “Tell me what you think is different about us,” she snapped. She leaned back against the sink. She couldn’t wait to hear what kind of bullshit he came up with next.
He snaked his fingers through the steel grate and blinked at her. “There’s the obvious. The mole. Yours is on the right and hers is on the left.”
Observant. Bonnie frowned.
“Then there’s the less obvious. You make larger gestures when you speak, and you speak louder. It’s almost as if you want people to know you are different from your sister. Samantha, on the other hand, speaks softly, if ever, and pins her elbows to her sides. She’s happy to blend in and go along. Nothing like you, Bonnie.”
Bonnie’s mouth dropped open slightly. She closed it.
“And your voice today, when you sang, held more pain than hers. You’ve been through more. Even if you’ve experienced the same losses, for some reason you felt them more fully.”
She laughed incredulously. “Really. Which verse did I sing?”
He shook his head. “You alternated. You sang the first line and Samantha sang the second, and so on. You both sang the refrain.”
Now her mouth really did fall open. Cord was locked in the pantry during their performance. He couldn’t have seen her sing, which meant he’d actually differentiated her voice.
“Am I wrong?” he asked.
She took a deep breath and blew it out before answering. “No.”
“You are beautiful,” he murmured. “Almost magical. I changed when I saw you. Everything about me changed.”
Seething, she placed her hands on her hips. “You are not beautiful, Cord,” she stated clearly. “You are a killer. You came here to kill me, and you’ve killed before. How dare you come here and try to what? Ply me with flattery? I hate you. I hate everything about you. You and Lucifer and the rest of the Watchers, are liars and cheaters. Just because we haven’t figured out your game yet, don’t think for a second I don’t know you are playing one.”
Cord’s eyes widened, and he backed away from the door. He sank to the floor at the back of the pantry and wrapped his wings around himself.
Skin hot and heart pounding, Bonnie resumed her cleaning. With clenched teeth, she threw her back into it, until the scrubbing became an aerobic activity, and her mind blanked with the effort. When the counters were done, she moved to the floors. When the floors were done, she moved to the walls. For hours, she worked, until her hands and knees were raw from the effort.
She jumped when the door swung open and Samantha poked her head in. “Bonnie, we need you. Malini’s called a meeting.” Her sister looked around the spotless kitchen and raised an eyebrow. “Good job. Sparkly.”
“Thanks.” Bonnie watched Samantha’s retreat, noticing as the door swung closed how her sister kept her elbows close to her sides and her soft words had floated into the room barely above a whisper. She hated that Cord was right. Violently, she rinsed out her supplies and stored them under the sink before pausing in the doorway. Against her better judgment, she glanced toward the pantry. He was staring at her, looking hungry and vulnerable. She scowled and let the door close behind her.
A circle of chairs waited for Bonnie in the main room. She took a seat between Samantha and Dane, apologizing for being the last one there. Malini was quick to dismiss her apology. Her small brown hands circled nervously, palms rubbing in front of her body. Bonnie noticed she’d trimmed her hair again. Her bangs had grown out to chin length, and she’d had someone cut the back shorter than the front. The effect was badass. Tonight, Malini didn’t look the part of nurturing Healer. She looked like someone who was about to lay down the law.
“Today, we lost two friends, Helpers and Soulkeepers. We’ve said our goodbyes. Now we’ve got to move on,” Malini began.
Bonnie heard her mother gasp at the blunt words.
“We are at war. Earth is occupied by Watchers. Lucifer has found a way to protect the humans who align themselves to him and kill the ones who don’t. And he has probably sent Cord—” She pointed at the kitchen. “—to spy on our operation.”
Malini shifted her weight from foot to foot. “We can’t lose anyone else. I can’t lose any of you, not personally or otherwise. We have to protect each other.”
Ethan coughed. “Sorry, but isn’t that what we’ve been doing? We’ve always protected each other.”
Malini shook her head. “We need to be more careful. More deliberate.”
Bonnie straightened in her seat. “You mean we need to be like…an army. More organized.”
Malini nodded. “Exactly, Bonnie. A mission-by-mission approach was fine before, when Watchers rarely appeared above ground and tried to hide the people they killed. But the world has changed. Now Lucifer wants his Watchers to be seen. We are soldiers for God. If the Watchers fight every day, we have to fight every day. And that means rules, a schedule, expectations.”
“Rules,” Ghost said. “What kind of rules are you thinking?”
“First, no one goes out alone. We go out in threes or not at all.”
“Why three?” Samantha asked.
“If one of you is attacked, another can attempt a rescue while the third calls for backup.”
Heads nodded in agreement.
Malini continued, “We’ll create a rotation. Dane, when it’s your turn to fight, you will borrow a power from the last team on rotation.”
Cheveyo shifted in his seat. “We’re sending Dane out regularly? What if he dies in the field? We’ll lose two Soulkeepers instead of one.”
Malini glared at him. “Then I guess he can’t die. Stay alive, Dane.”
Grinning, Dane bobbed his head, but Ethan’s jaw tightened. He wasn’t the only Soulkeeper looking uncomfortable. Ghost fidgeted with a torn section of upholstery on the bottom of his chair, Jacob’s pale face froze like a mask, and Grace looked like she might be sick.
“What about the expectations? You said we’d have expectations,” Bonnie said.
Malini nodded her head. “Each team will have a quota.” A murmur rose up from the group. “We are not simply defending ourselves. We are waging a counterattack. Lucifer cannot make more Watchers, which means that every one we kill is one less out there to harm a human. We will start with three per night and adjust from there based on our experiences.”
Bonnie noticed Samantha mouth three to Ghost, looking quite shaken. Whispers floated up around her. Shock, worry, and even distrust played across the other Soulkeepers faces. Well, they all had something to lose. She didn’t.
“When do we start? I want to go first,” Bonnie said. Samantha’s glare cut her like stabbing daggers.
Malini smiled. “We start tonight, Bonnie, and I’ll take your volunteering under consideration.” She looked at Samantha pointedly.
“One more thing,” Bonnie said, regaining Malini’s attention. “Can we kill Cord? If we think he’s a spy, we’re better off with him dead. I volunteer to do it.”
“Yeah,” Cheveyo said. “I’m completely freaked out having that thing in the next room.”
As Malini pondered the question, she paced the space inside the circle of chairs, seeming to go somewhere else for a moment. Her eyes took on the spacey sheen of a daydreamer, and her stare seemed to favor the wall. “I need to think about that.”
Didn’t she know how important this was? Bonnie stood up, knocking her chair over. “What’s to think about? We have a ticking time bomb locked up in the pantry,” she yelled. “He came her to kill us. He was going to start with me and Hope.” Bonnie pointed an open hand toward Lillian, who bounced the baby on her shoulder.
“He bleeds like an angel,” Malini said softly.
“Yeah, he does. So what does that mean? You’re the Healer. Ca
n a fallen angel unfall? Can a Watcher become an angel again? Did God do it? Did I?” She began to tremble. “It doesn’t make sense. It’s a trap. I know it.”
“My decision is to keep him alive, for now,” Malini said firmly.
Bonnie turned her face away, scowling. “I should have killed him when I had the chance.”
Malini crossed the circle and pulled Bonnie into a hug. Warmth flowed through her causing the tension to bleed from her neck and shoulders. When the Healer backed away, Bonnie expected her to agree to kill the Watcher in disguise, that the hug was a peace offering.
Instead, Malini turned to the others. “For now, we will keep Cord alive and imprisoned. My instincts tell me he could serve a purpose for us in the future.”
“What?” Bonnie said, hands slapping her sides. “Are you kidding me?”
Malini raised a finger, pointing at Bonnie’s face. “Stand down, Bonnie. If Cord truly has changed, he’ll help us. He’ll tell us about Lucifer’s plans. If he hasn’t changed, we may be able to use him to get false information back to Lucifer. One thing I know for sure, he’s useless dead.”
Bonnie felt violated. How could Malini not see that keeping either an angel or a Watcher locked up in a pantry was a recipe for disaster?
Malini didn’t argue the point but moved on to the next one. “Watcher activity is greater at night. That’s when we’ll patrol. During the day, we’ll obtain food and supplies. We’ll take turns watching Hope.” She turned a circle, making eye contact with each of the Soulkeepers.
Bonnie wasn’t sure what the Healer was looking for. Everyone was antsy and restless, even the adults. If she wanted reassurance, she wasn’t going to get it.
