Interra (Awakened Series Book 5)

by Harley Austin

  “If you tell anyone I will deny it––and then kill you,” she added.

  He chuckled. “I probably wouldn’t even see it coming.”

  “No, you would not,” she smirked, smiling and taking another sip from her glass.

  They walked far out into the garden, past warm-jacketed security and well away from the music and sounds of the party.

  “Did you really come out all this way to see me?” he asked.

  “Apparently. Carson asked me if I wanted to. Was that a mistake?”

  “No. No, not at all,” Jake assured her. “But I feel like I should apologize for what happened back at Jericho.”

  “No need. I was, a little surprised by my own behavior. I am really not like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “Forward. I believe I led you on. I am never so—impulsive, unrefined.” She shook her hair back beautifully.

  “Natural impulse is seldom refined, Francesca. That’s what makes it so interesting.”

  “You are unusually attractive, Jacob Gold.”

  “Attractive? I don’t think you’re talking about my warm and fuzzy personality. I’ve read about this ‘attraction’ thing you people have.”

  “You have it as well. You are drawn to us; and some of us to you.”

  “That figures. So, why not kiss me, then?” he asked. “You could have.”

  “Why did you hesitate?”

  “I don’t know. I guess—”

  “Soldiers,” she scoffed, “they can shoot you without a moment’s notice, but put them in front of a woman and suddenly they are full of indecision.”

  Jake stopped and turned toward her. His arm slipped around her slender waist and he pulled the both of them close together. He looked at Francesca for long moments, studying her.

  “What are you afraid of?” she began. “Just—”

  “Shut-up,” he interrupted softly. He continued looking into her eyes.

  Francesca drew a short breath; the glass slipped from her hand and shattered all over the cobblestone path; her hand found the side of his face while the other rested on his chest. Her eyes showed uncertainty as she looked into his.

  Jake met her lips with his own, completely unsure about what the hell he was doing. But there was nothing unsure about the kiss Francesca returned. It was sweet; powerful, gentle, and completely alluring. Like she knew exactly how he liked to be touched. Damn. The woman could kiss.

  Their lip play was enduring, primal, unrefined, even aggressive at moments. Nothing like Jake was expecting from such a refined and elegant creature.

  Jake drew a deep breath coming up for air. “Francesca,” he breathed. “G-d. Is this how all the goddesses kiss?”

  “No,” she breathed, finding his lips again. “Just Francesca.”

  * * * * *

  Jake found his father in the library where he usually retired to after large parties. It was dad’s man-cave; a place to think and unwind and reflect. Mom seldom even came into the room. Jake entered, sliding both doors closed.

  “Hey, Dad,” he said walking up to the fireplace where a low gas flame burned softly.

  “Jacob. I saw you with that young lady this evening. She’s really stunning.”

  “Yea. She is.”

  “I heard Serena has gotten married?”

  “Yea, well––hey, I need to talk to you about something.”

  “Not about young ladies?”

  “No, not really.”

  He nodded. “Sit. What’s on your mind?” he said in his typical kind voice, putting down his book. David Gold wasn’t exactly an old man; he was well preserved in his early fifties with still a good head of hair and a cleanly shaven barely aged face. The family was much more ‘Tel Aviv’ than Orthodox.

  “I found something,” Jake began. “When I went looking for Serena.”

  “Oh?”

  Jake sat down on the hearth. “Something big. I don’t exactly know what to do.”

  “Is it something I should know about?”

  “Yea, probably. Ever hear of the Nephilim?”

  His dad nodded, “The Torah story. Sure. We all have.”

  “Ever consider that they might be real?”

  Jake’s dad looked at him with a raised brow. “You found Nephilim?”

  “Yea. I did, actually, sort of,” he offered in a more quiet voice.

  David Gold was suddenly quiet. He drew a short deep breath and asked, “How do you know they are who they say they are?”

  “It sounds like you know about them.” Jake probed. He was all at once intrigued that his Dad wasn’t just dismissing him out of hand.

  “We—don’t know all that much, Jacob. We know they’re reclusive; tough to follow. Even harder to find. If you found a Nephilim, they’re long gone by now. Trust me.”

  Jake smirked his disagreement.

  “You know something, don’t you—” His dad leaned forward, sitting on the edge of the chair now. “What did you find, Jacob? Did you actually talk to one?” His curiosity piqued.

  “Yea,” Jake nodded. “I talked to one,” Jake said half sarcastically, his mind briefly flashing the memory of his stay in Jericho––and then his long kiss with Francesca.

  “When?!”

  “Just this evening. Out in the garden. That girl you saw me with. She’s one of them.”

  “Really. How do you know? People can say anything.”

  “Dad, did you raise an idiot?”

  “No. No, of course not. I am sorry, Jacob. It’s just, that this particular topic is more secret than anything else in our government; in fact, it is older than our government. Our people have been secretly attempting to follow and learn from the Nephilim since before the Prophets.

  “But they always keep us at arm’s length. It’s like we catch glimpses of them every few decades or so and then they vanish. It takes a generation or more just to locate them again.

  “And now you tell me that one of them was not only walking in my garden but standing in my home and talking to my son? That is a lot to swallow, given their history.”

  Jake nodded. “I know where you are coming from, Dad. Don’t worry about it. I’m not offended.”

  “There’s speculation that some of the Prophets themselves may have been Nephilim.”

  Jake nodded, “Yea, I think that’s a pretty safe bet.”

  “So, you actually talked to one of them. The young lady,” he mused. “She would have to be Nephilim as beautiful as she is.”

  “She’s over three thousands years old, Dad.”

  “Really. They live that long?”

  Jake nodded. “Yea, they do. But they’re also about to become extinct.”

  “Extinct? What? How!?”

  “They’re at war, with each other. There aren’t many of them left.”

  “I’ve heard others say the same thing. The Nephilim are a violent race. It’s why G-d destroyed them.”

  “That’s an interesting perspective. Is that why G-d destroyed us? Were we violent?”

  “We were, Jacob. It’s why the sacrifices are no longer. All that blood running out of the Temple. No nation will survive committing that kind of violence.”

  “These people aren’t violent, Dad. They’re like us in some ways. They’re at war with people who hate them because they are who they are.”

  “Interesting. Are you sure you’ve really seen them, Jacob? Are you sure someone wasn’t just trying to make you think that they’re some of these ancients?”

  “Here,” Jake removed the gold band from his hand. “I’m pretty sure you’ve never see anything like this before.” He handed the ring to his dad. The elder Gold rolled the unusually heavy band in his hand and then got up and pulled his jeweler’s loupe from a desk drawer.

  “Remarkable,” he exclaimed as he examined the intricate band. “The stone inlay is seamless. It’s very intricately faceted. It looks like an allotrope, possibly, but, but it’s got to be synthetic. It’s flawless.” He looked up at Jake and handed the ring
back to his son. “It’s beautiful. These Nephilim made this?”

  Jake took the ring and placed it back onto his finger, holding it up with spread fingers for his dad to see.

  “No. The Sons of G-d did.”

  The band’s crystalline inlay burst into a sudden brightness, illuminating the room in a supernatural glow the likes of which David Gold had never seen before!

  Jake watched his dad gaze at the intense radiant glow with awe.

  “Incredible,” he whispered, looking at the near blinding glow that did not blind. Jake closed his hand and just as instantly the room-filling aura was gone.

  David looked at his son, his face still in amazement. “The Sons of G-d? But, they were the ones who had children with us—” David sat down again, his mind racing in thought. “It’s true, then,” his dad continued. Jake took his seat back on the hearth. “The legends are true.”

  Jake grinned. “No Dad, the legends are junk, actually. The reality, is a lot more interesting.”

  “We know so little about them, Jacob; I am sure their history is vast. How did you find them?”

  “Serena, actually. It’s a long story, but I followed Serena after she disappeared. She married one of them, or she’s about to.”

  “She marrying one of the Sons of G-d? I don’t understand, I thought you said you met the Nephilim?”

  “The Torah story,” Jake reminded, “the Sons of G-d took daughters of men and the Nephilim were the result. Half man half god.”

  “Right, right,” David nodded.

  “We thought we were just following the Nephilim; who we’ve really been following all this time, are the Sons of G-d.”

  “Angels?” David speculated.

  “Dad, you need to just be quiet and let me talk,” Jake interrupted.

  The elder Gold nodded and listened.

  “Scores of millennia ago the Sons of G-d went to war with each other. They call themselves the Ra. It devastated their populations to the point where they couldn’t keep the race going. There’s a lot more to the history, but now there’s only a few of them left along with a handful of Nephilim or halfbloods; demigods.”

  Jake could see the wheels turning within the mind of his dad. It was just how he was. Neither of them were very good listeners, actually. He let his dad think for several moments; Jake knew his dad would have a completely different take on the situation. He always did.

  “If what you are saying is true, Jacob, then this goes well beyond just a national security issue. What you’ve told me this evening is more information than we’ve been able to gather in thousands of years. It feels almost prophetic, like an omen. We’ve crossed into a new revelation.”

  Jake nodded.

  “What else have they told you? That young lady, or, whoever she is. Why is she here?”

  “Some of the Nephilim have infiltrated our government. She’s here to help us weed them out.”

  David nodded. “That would not surprise me. I am sure they have infiltrated more than a few governments. The U.S. as well perhaps?”

  Jake nodded. “Serena was being chased by U.S. Homeland.”

  “That figures. It answers a lot a questions as to why the U.S. hasn’t been very hospitable lately. But, it brings up many more questions as well, Jacob. Whatever technology produced this ring is far beyond anything we are capable of. These—Sons of G-d, or Ra, they must be powerful. Intelligent. I’m not sure about the wisdom of getting involved in their war.”

  Jake half scoffed. “We’re already involved in their war, Dad. We weren’t exactly given a choice.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The Ra were on the edge of extinction. To keep their genetics from dying out, they used Humans to harbor their DNA.”

  “You’re not serious!”

  “I am serious, Dad. Evidently, Shem was one of the first Nephilim. Or something like that; I still don’t have all the details. But since that time the good gods have been trying to save us while the evil ones are bent on destroying us.”

  David Gold just looked at his son in a bewildered gaze as his mind charged off in many different directions at once. “So that’s why they wrote what they wrote.”

  “Wrote what, Dad?”

  “Torah. Let us make man in our image.”

  “You mean re-make—”

  David Gold nodded. “I do.” He got up from his chair once again. “This answers a lot of questions, Jacob. About these gods.”

  “They’re not really gods, Dad. Truth is, they’re just people. They look just like we do. They’re advanced and physically more capable than we are. But they’re people trying to survive, just like we are.”

  “I don’t know that they are just like we are, Jacob. Whoever made that ring you just showed me is far beyond us; they could enslave or wipe us off the face of the Earth.”

  Jake smirked again at the irony of his dad’s words. “That’s not what they’re about. They’ve been helping us survive. Look around you. Our culture, our knowledge, our language, just about everything we know, we can trace directly to what the Ra have given us. We would still be drawing on cave walls if it were not for them.”

  David nodded. “So they have sent this emissary to help us out? I assume you’re planning on doing something for them as well?”

  “They have asked me to become a kind of double-agent. I told them no. My country comes first.”

  “I appreciate your patriotism, Jacob, but I have a feeling you will be accepting their offer.”

  “What?! Dad, I am not going not going to betray my country! My own people!”

  “No one said you were. You will be doing the exact opposite, in fact.”

  “You’re losing me.”

  “Your allegiance, Son, is to your people. We are the offspring of Noah, the sons of Shem, are we not?”

  Jake nodded.

  “Apparently that now includes the blood of these Ra. They are blood, Son. Every bit as much as we are to each other. Maybe more so. You will need to be our liaison with them for the time being.”

  “A politician? Dad, I am not trained for anything like this! You need to find someone else.”

  David Gold chuckled. “I wasn’t trained to mine diamonds either. Or run covert operations. You learn as you go. You’ll figure it out.”

  “You’re making this an assignment? You’re supposed to be helping me!” Jake insisted.

  David laughed. “Help you? Jacob, you walk into my den and provide me with intel that has eluded the best agents we have had for three millennia? Actually show me a piece of their technology that no one has ever seen before? Just how much help do you think any of us can really be to you, Son?”

  “It was just dumb luck, Dad,” Jake protested.

  “I don’t believe in luck, Jacob. I do believe in G-d. Whatever purposes HaShem has had for these people clearly He has brought us––and more specifically you––into their world for a reason. I would consider this a mission from G-d, not your Dad.”

  37

  K ent stood outside on the deck of their home with Lisa. Their large fuzzy brown guest followed them out, deliberately moving his twelve-hundred pound frame against Lisa and getting a series of deep finger scratches from her around his ears and then his back as he pushed by.

  Kent’s eyes were on the time counter that had been softly pulsing orange and now red for the past day. There was still no word from Rion. And in another minute, it wouldn’t matter. Kent pulled Lisa close as the timer counted down to nothing. Their rings grew suddenly silent. The doors of their home quietly closed, sealing the tower now, for all time.

  Dark stood with Carson, Kari and Julia, Eric and Keith, Silas and the rest of his executive team as Jericho’s reflex cores dropped offline and went eerily dark.

  “Status?” Carson ordered.

  Blaze scrolled through the screens of an iPad. “Ion reactors are online and humming just fine, Carson. Everything’s been switched over. All systems are a hundred percent and nominal, well, with noted exceptions.
”

  “What about the Temple, Kari?”

  “It was evacuated yesterday. Everyone’s out. No one will be entering the Holy of Holies again. Ever.” She drew herself close to Dark.

  Rigel set down his phone, a look of concern crossing his face.

  “Something amiss, my friend?” Solis asked. His white robes of Church authority moving elegantly as he moved toward his fellow elder god.

  “I don’t know what to make of it. The Temple in Bethlehem has been, evacuated—and sealed.”

  “Sealed? Odd. Ten thousand people work in that structure.”

  “Indeed. It was vacated just yesterday.”

  “Vacated. And you didn’t see this?”

  “Of course, I knew of it. But there are bomb threats by various extremists occasionally. It’s not the first time such an evacuation has happened.”

  “Rigel. Have we seen Rion lately? Any of his cohorts perhaps?”

  “Not since the events in San Antonio. DHS found a dead halfblood and then we lost track of the Invicti girl.”

  “Perhaps you should look at some of their other structures. Have they been vacated as well? San Antonio, Seattle? New York? They have several.”

  “Indeed. I’ll make some calls.”

  “The dead halfblood, Rigel. What clan was he from?”

  “He was Aegean, actually. Why?”

  “Hmmm,” Solis considered the detail. “Perhaps the Philistines are growing restless again?”

  “A distinct possibility. No one else would be so foolish as to outright attack the Sentinels.”

  “The clans have been very quiet as of late, Rigel. Not exactly their nature.”

  “You think they’re up to something? An attack perhaps?”

  “That is not outside of the realm of possibly.” He tapped his finger against his lips. “Events are moving, rapidly now, my friend. The Invicti are among us. The Human nations are one, under our command. The Dark Messiah offered by the prophecies will soon rise. He is perhaps already among us.”

  “But to what end? The prophecies are off course.”

  “Precisely. No one knows at this point what he will do. We need to be cautious in the extreme. We may have enemies that even we are not aware of now.”