He knew seeing people she loved die had brought on this sudden urge to study healing. But, regardless of the reasons, it was a good thing to pursue.
“Good.” He spun her around as the song came to an end. “I think you will be good at whatever you do.”
She smiled. “Really?”
“Yeah, really.” He smiled back at her and then kissed the top of her head when the song came to an end.
Michael strode over, looking terribly uncomfortable in the suit he was wearing for the occasion, and held his hand out for Deanna’s as the next song began. She rolled her eyes at Alex and skipped off with Michael.
Alex watched the gathering of people who had come to remember Chris and was finally happy with the goodbye. But, that goodbye seemed more than just goodbye, it felt like the beginning of something. Isabella had killed Malcolm, Levine had killed Chris and had threatened her return so it was most certainly the beginning of more to come.
One of the first things he had done when they had returned home was go to the church and pray. He gave his thanks for everyone who was saved and had asked God to look after Chris. He wanted to believe that Chris’s good soul would go to heaven. He had no way, of course, to be sure, or perhaps he would feel differently about the future of his own soul. Funny how one could consider themselves damned but at the same time find another of the same cloth not damned.
He wandered off to the sunroom to be alone. He hadn’t had much time to be alone in the four days since they had been home. He sat on the same bench where he had first seen Isabella the day he had fallen in love with her.
Danielle soon joined him. As if she had heard him calling her, she suddenly appeared beside an arbor of white roses. Their vines twined and mingled, growing around each other so closely they appeared to be one, but still remained their own entity.
“Are you OK?” She floated softly across the gap between them.
He crossed his legs. “I’m happy,” he told her
“But?” She sat down beside him as she questioned.
“But, I want to know what happened to you. Why you left me alone in the chamber with Malcolm.”
She lowered her head, her dark lashes fluttering down as she closed her eyes. “The reason why I left you alone was simple, but not easy.”
“Danielle.” He sighed; he didn’t want to hear a bunch of her confusing angel talk.
“Let me finish.” She sighed too. “You always assume before anyone can finish what they are saying. I left you alone because I was told to; right then and there, God spoke to me and told me you must fight it alone. The not easy part was actually standing back and watching you do it. I wanted to help you, Alex. For heaven’s sake, I killed demons in there; I became a monster myself and I am not proud of that at all.”
Alex lowered his head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound as if I ever doubted you; it was hard, though, knowing you were there and not helping. I felt betrayed.”
“Alex, I am your guardian. I would never betray you.”
“What about Damion?”
She sighed once more. “Oh, how I do love that guy. He is a temptation and a rock. He is probably more worthy of heaven than any of us for all that he does on the side of good. But, he is my temptation here on earth. Alex, you need to understand that I am stuck here. Sure, I love what I do and I hope to someday accomplish my mission but it is not easy being an angel and actually being trapped somewhere. It’s like caging an animal, in a way.”
Alex understood completely. She needed love, real love, as much as anyone did. He took her hand to show her his understanding and they sat there in the quiet of the plants and flowers, soaking up the sunshine he had so often craved for himself.
The sun didn’t bother him at all that time. Unlike the first time at Jeremiah’s when he had stepped into the sunrise, there were no side effects. His skin showed no signs of burns and his eyes had adjusted adequately that first day when they had escaped being squashed like pancakes inside Malcolm’s lair. And he could no longer feel the sunrise when it approached. It was wonderful.
Later, at sunset, only the council members remained behind. There was one last thing they needed to do to keep themselves, and Jaiden, safe.
They all gathered with Alex in his bedroom. Isabella was excluded; even though she had been through so much with them, she was still not part of the Great Council. Corrine, however, did join them. She stood silently, her long red hair flaming down her back and her pale arms wrapped around the evil book which housed demons of the past.
Alex removed his key from his pocket and unlocked the door leading to his secret underground chamber. It was a solemn walk for they were hiding away the most dangerous thing to Jaiden in the very home in which she was living.
He led them through the dark maze and into the large chamber where his coffin sat alone on its huge slab. No one had ever seen the inside of his secret place before, not even Danielle. Well, to his knowledge, she hadn’t.
“Help me.” He gripped one end of his casket with both hands.
Damion took hold of the other side, and together, they moved the casket aside, setting it carefully on the stone floor. Underneath the casket, on the raised portion of the slab formed in a square, were four triangular pieces of stone which were a bit darker grey than the rest. On each corner of the square, a circle with a cross was carved into the stone.
Alex crouched over that oddity underneath his casket, sifted through his key ring and found the little silver cross hanging amongst the keys. He fitted the cross into the first circle on the top left and twisted. The entire circle turned one quarter turn to the left. He did the same with each circle, working his way clockwise until each one had been turned.
When the last one clicked into place, the dark grey triangles began to slide backward into the stone slab and left an opening big enough to crawl into.
Corrine stepped up onto the slab and handed Alex the book. He carefully set the book into the hole and then covered it with one of Jaiden’s small pink blankets.
“There.”
He turned the crosses back to their original positions and they watched the stone slide back over the opening, hiding the book from the world, from those who wanted it for its evil, and for Jaiden.
“It is done,” Danielle whispered and gripped Alex’s hand. “For now.”
###
About the Author
Jennifer Malone Wright resides in the beautiful mountains of northern Idaho with her husband and five children. Between the craziness of taking care of her children, whose ages range from fourteen all the way down to six months, and being a homemaker, Jennifer has little time left for herself. The time she does have left, usually leading far into the night, is spent working on freelance work or her beloved fiction.
When she grew up, Jennifer always had her nose in a book. She has been writing stories and poems since grade school. This love of the written word and her strong interest in the paranormal is what has led to her first novel “The Birth of Jaiden.”
In addition to being a mother and homemaker, Jennifer is also a very proud military wife. Moving around the country for the last ten years has made her a bit of a nomad and she finds it difficult to be in one place for too long.
“The Birth of Jaiden” is only the beginning of novel writing for Jennifer; she has many more stories which are just waiting to be written.
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