Copula Chronicles: The Complete Collection: Origin, Descend, Ascend, Legacy

by Venessa Kimball

  I put the key in the lock and I guess she realizes I’m not going to turn back around to talk to her, so she leans her shoulder against the door pane. “What’re you doing right now?”

  I look at her sideways. “Like right now?”

  “Yeah! I’m heading out to this boutique clothing store on Cutler. They’re having an open house from six to eight. Some blow out sale. Wanna come?”

  My phone buzzing in my pocket distracts me. “Um.”

  I look down at my phone. It’s Ezra texting me again.

  “Get rid of her. Remember your cover.”

  I scan the front windows wondering which he’s eaves dropping from. “I would, but I can’t. My dad needs my help with some things. Housekeeping stuff.”

  She shrugs, “No worries, I understand. I’m housesitting my mom’s villa through the summer while she travels around Europe with her fiancé, Francois. Keeping things straight isn’t my strong suit.”

  Corinna laughs at her own expense and I start to say goodbye when she questions, “What about tomorrow? Lunch? The Beach?”

  Beach. I haven’t had a chance to hit the beach since being here. I think she misconstrues my pause to respond as a lack of interest in hanging out with her. “It’s cool if you have other plans. Just wanted to be neighborly. There are a lot of old geezers around here, so I haven’t had a chance to make many friends that live close by.”

  Damn, now I feel guilty. She seems cool though. “You know what? Tomorrow’s my day off, so lunch and the beach would be great.”

  You’d think I given her a puppy with how she responds. “Awesome! Okay, I’ll come by tomorrow at noon! Bye!”

  She waves and steps off the porch with a spring in her step. As I watch her cross the yard, I know I’m going to have Ezra to answer to. Low and behold he’s standing in the kitchen, his arms crossed, staring at me. “When I call or text, I expect you to acknowledge it.”

  I lean against the door and stare back at him. “Sorry dad.”

  He tosses the kitchen towel draped over his shoulder onto the counter top. “Who is she?”

  I put my purse down as I walk toward the bar stool across from Ezra. “That’s Corinna Cain, my new friend apparently.”

  I laugh a little recalling how quirky she seems.

  Feeling self-conscious, I look up at Ezra as he tilts his head and studies something on my face. “What?”

  “What’s that on your face?”

  I start wiping at my chin as it looks like the area he’s looking at. “On my face?”

  He points right at my mouth and squints, “Yeah, it was right there on your lips.”

  Irritated, I snap at him as I wipe the sides of my mouth. “What do I have on me?”

  Ezra’s serious look turns playful all of a sudden. “It looked like it was a smile.”

  I stare at him a little confused. “What?”

  His own smile grows as he picks up his bottle of water and starts to walk away, “You should wear one more often.”

  As he walks over to the kitchen table, I grin at his attempt to joke with me. “Well you wanted me to get rid of her. She’s the one that made me smile.”

  As he sits down at the table, he puts on his readers and looks up at me, smile still intact. “We’re training on the beach after dinner.”

  Our side of the beach is very private, away from the public eye. So the physical training Ezra has me doing won’t draw too much attention. Other than the old lady peaking out her window. I glance over at Corinna’s place. She’s probably watching and I’ll have to give her an explanation tomorrow.

  “So the beach tomorrow with your new friend?”

  In between burpees, I respond. “Yeah, she invited me.”

  “Just be careful.”

  I pop back up. “I will.”

  “You don’t want to put yourself or anyone else in jeopardy.”

  I pop back up more winded this time, pausing to respond. “Yeah, I got it. I’ve got my cover.”

  As I go back down to the ground, I put my block up before I think of Xander and how I probably gave him too much away about myself.

  “We can’t confide in anyone. It’s dangerous for us and for the company we keep.”

  Popping back up, I glare at him. “Okay Ezra. I’m not going to jeopardize anyone.”

  We stand there staring at each other for a few moments, then Ezra nods at me. “Thirty more, then three miles on the beach.”

  Over the next few days, Corinna and I are inseparable. When I’m not at the bookstore with Miss Olivia, or training with Ezra, I’m with Corinna. We go shopping, check out the local coffee shops, have lunch, hang out at her mom’s house. I didn’t realize how much I missed girl-time.

  We’re lying on the beach, taking in the sun when Corinna asks, “You want to check out this club down on the coastline tonight? I met the owner a few days ago. He said to bring some friends.”

  I open one eye and look over at her. “Like a dance club?”

  Perking up with my question, she sits up eager to tell me. “Oh my god Jes, this guy is absolutely gorgeous! His eyes, they’re like—just amazing! And, it’s like one of the hottest clubs in Miami! Don’t tell me you have to clean the toilet or do that training shit you and your dad do out here on the beach! Tonight, you’re going out with me!”

  I should say no. I angle my head at her. “Are you going to check the club out or the guy?”

  She shrugs and looks out into the water and smiles mischievously. “Both. Lots of friends from campus have gone and have been trying to get me to go. I’ve been stand-offish about the whole club scene since the recent negative publicity it’s been getting, but when Mr. Hottie invited me, I changed my mind.”

  “Negative publicity? Like what?”

  “A few night-clubbers have gone missing over the past couple of weeks.”

  My phone pinging distract me. I look down at the caller I.D. ‘the Eagle’. Of course. Ezra.

  I decline the call and focus back on Corinna and what she said about night-clubbers missing. “So, even with all this publicity you still want to go?”

  My phone vibrates in my hand. Damn it Ezra! I look down and see the text.

  “I have an update. I need you up here now.”

  Corinna lazily responds as she returns to soaking up the sun. “It’s fine. Media blows things out of proportion all the time!”

  I start to pack up my bag. “Hey, I’m going to head up to the house. Dad needs me to help him put some boxes in the attic. I don’t think you should go by yourself tonight.”

  She glances over at me. “I’m not going alone. You’re going with me.”

  I shake my head as she changes the subject. “You never said how long you and your dad plan on staying. Mom said Mr. Haynes would be coming back mid-summer. Are you staying until then?”

  I dust my legs off as I consider how I’ve already gotten close to her and the potential friendship going any further than the length of my mission here is slim to none. “Um, I’m not sure. I think we are. It’s kind of up in the air. I’ll call you later, okay?”

  I rise from the sand as she sings back to me, “No you won’t, because you’ll be going to the club with me.”

  I stare down at her as she pulls her shades down the bridge of her nose. “No excuses. Got it?”

  I look out into the ocean and debate my response. Worst case scenario, I’ll have to text her and bail. “Okay. What time?”

  Walking in through the back door, I see Ezra camped out at the kitchen table. The once neatly stacked files scattered and open. “Take a seat. We’ve got something.”

  A wave of anxious heat rushes over my entire body. Ezra rises and walks toward the kitchen as I sit. “Do you want something to drink?”

  I glance feverishly from one file to the next; trying to catch a glimpse of something that could
give me a clue on what Ezra is going to talk with me about. “No thanks.”

  One picture catches my eyes. A woman in the throes of pain and agony, tied to a bed as her torso arches high above the ties that bind her. Her face, it’s distorted, her eyes wild and her mouth gapping wide; a scream, cry or yell, I’m not sure. A priest is standing over her praying. I note the word ‘MISSING’ in bold letters running along the bottom of the picture. Who took these pictures?

  Another disturbing image catches my eye. A boy. He can’t be any older than ten, as he lays flat and levitating high above his bed. A woman cowering by his side covering her eyes. Again, the word ‘MISSING’ is labeled on the image.

  My hair stands on end as if lightning is about to strike. I look between both of these shocking images. “What’re these?”

  Ezra comes back and sits down across from me. “This is what I have been working on since we got here.

  He takes a drink of his water, seemingly unmoved by what I’m seeing for the first time.

  I turn the image of the woman launching her body off the bed, like she’s possessed by something. “What kind of work? Who took these pictures?”

  I wait for Ezra to take in the image I’m showing him, even though he’s probably seen it numerous times. I guess I expected some reaction. She’s so disfigured; I don’t think I’ll ever get her image out of my mind. As he takes another drink of his water, appearing to be immune to her distortion, I place it in front of him. “What happened to her?”

  I have my own thoughts. She looks like a demon for God sake.

  Ezra finishes my thought. “It’s demonic possession. Or what society would dictate as demonic possession.”

  He’s so lackadaisical about this. “Her face is twisted and her eyes are rolled back in her fucking head! I’d say she’s possessed!”

  Ezra opens a bag of chips and pops one in his mouth. “Possession yes, but not demonic.”

  As I glance down again at the woman’s bloodshot and hemorrhaging eyes, her cheekbones pronounced unnaturally, I can’t help but think of that same fucking nightmare about my mother; her trembling in my father’s arms as her body shakes.

  I get up and walk to the kitchen to put some distance between me and the pictures. Me and my nightmare come to life before my very eyes. “If it’s not demonic, what the hell is it?”

  Ezra is shuffling pictures and files, like he’s looking for something. “What if I told you that for centuries what people have thought to be demonic possession was actually an alien possession resulting from an abduction.”

  I take a long drink of my bottle of water. “Alien possession? That’s crazy!”

  Ezra retorts, “As crazy as demonic possession? For hundreds of years the argument of demonic possession being real or not has been fought. Take the Bible for instance. How do we know that the demons it details were grotesque-looking animal-like mutations from a realm called Hell, rather than beings with different physical and metaphysical attributes from another world called Hell?”

  “Invaders from another world were the demons in the Bible?”

  My question comes off snarky on purpose, because that’s a mouthful to buy. Ezra takes it with a grain of salt. “How do we know that those possessions weren’t the beginnings of human abduction, tracking, even mind control?”

  His saying the word tracking brings to mind the trackers he spoke about in Georgia and the day we left the facility. Ezra sees he has me thinking now as he leans forward on the table. “Tracked and marked. Much like a marine biologist would tag the migration of whales in the ocean, an extraterrestrial force would tag a woman or young boy to use as a means of communication or a window into our world.”

  I walk back to the table and sit back down across from him. “You’re serious.”

  Ezra nods, still connecting with me at eye level. “These files are real people from all walks of life. From all over the world.”

  Ezra pushes the images back to me and points down at them. “This is happening all over the world. All of a sudden, it’s happening with more frequency. More people missing after being touched by ‘demonic possession’ or diagnosed with ‘mental illness’.”

  Ezra restocks the files, obviously agitated by the entire situation. “When you look at the reports of abductions globally, the largest numbers reported missing in the past two years has occurred in Japan and North America. We have Dobrian assets everywhere tracking this intelligence: hospitals, mental institutions, churches, doctors, lawyers, priests— the list goes on.”

  Ezra pulls out a file and opens it to face me. “In the last six months, there have been dozens of missing persons reports filed right here in Miami. Sudden mental illness, schizophrenic episodes, hallucinations, multiple personalities, demonic possession, exorcisms and speaking in tongues are just the short list. Not to mention the use of Aramaic, an ancient language not even spoken anymore. From here to Japan, every translator has confirmed the Aramaic references of one singular coming event. The collision of our galaxy and another. Our galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy. Just as the fellowship has said all along.”

  “So, these people are being abducted, marked and used to warn us about this collision?”

  I can’t help but think of Corinna being one of the nightclub goers that could potentially fall victim.

  Ezra runs his hand through his hair, and then rests it on the back of his neck. “It’s a revelation Jesca. A promise. Not a warning. And these people—I’m not sure what’s coming of them.”

  As I look over the files strewn across the table, I feel that sensation of lightening striking. The one that’s always been a solid sure thing that a shit storm was coming. It’s never failed me before and God, how I wish it’d fail me now. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. The evidence is on the table, literally.

  Ezra speaks solemnly. “The shift, our galaxy and Andromeda, has begun. This collision that was hundreds of thousands of miles away is upon us. This is real—shifting of the polar caps, weather patterns becoming unstable and volatile, natural disasters occurring with greater frequency.”

  Ezra suddenly tosses the picture of Samson Crest on the stack of files. “He’s pulling the strings for Balthazar on this. I know it.”

  I rise from my chair and lean against the table as I look from the image to Ezra. “Well then what the hell are we waiting on? You know where he is, right? Let’s go take him down.”

  Ezra looks at me squarely. “We’re waiting for backup. I’ve called in for a partner for you. We need more man power.”

  “For what? Stopping this Samson Crest guy would put a big ass hole in Balthazar’s plans. It might stop the collision! And you want to wait for backup?”

  Ezra blows out his upper lip. “You’re too new—”

  I feel my pride take a punch right to the gut. “New! We’re waiting because I’m new! You and I can do this Ezra!”

  “You need a partner Jesca!”

  “What the hell are you talking about? You’re my partner!”

  Ezra shakes his head. “I’m not your partner. I’m your mentor. Sebastian and I both agree—”

  His voice trails off as I start sifting through the files, looking for information on Samson Crest. My mind’s on a mission to find out anything that could lead me to him. I search my memory for what I remember seeing in the facility about him, but I’m so pissed off right now, all I see is red! I reach for the file underneath Samson’s picture, but Ezra grabs my hand and pulls the manila folder away from me. “You’re not going after him until we’re cleared to go! Sebastian and I know what we’re up against Jes! You’ve no idea! Don’t let pride get in the way of your judgment!”

  I pull my hand away and step back from the table. “You and I can find him right now and this could be over! You know what I’m capable of! We can do this!”

  I look up at the ceiling and yell. “And you know what I’m ca
pable of too Sebastian Onoch, where ever the hell you are!”

  I look back down at Ezra. “You said it yourself. You’ve never seen someone with so many abilities gifted to them! You’ve taught me how to use them for this very reason!”

  Ezra rises from his chair. “Yes, but your abilities are volatile! Inconsistent! You need a partner to balance you! Someone other than me! I’m trying to keep you safe!”

  “You know what? This is bullshit! I’m out of here!” I turn on my heels, grab my purse and head for the door. I need to get out of here before I explode! I hear his chair scoot back against the wooden floor and call after me as I slam the door behind me.

  Corinna opens the door with a huge smile that quickly sours with one look. “What’s up?”

  I shake my head, unable to form words at unless I want to bring my new friend into this shit storm, which I won’t do. “Can I come in?”

  She motions me in, “Yeah, yeah. Come in.”

  I fabricate a daddy daughter type scenario with Ezra, his being a total asshole, while I watch Corinna curl her eyelashes through her reflection in the bathroom mirror. “Sorry Jes. Dad’s can be real pricks some time. Pass some stupid judgment because they think they have it all figured out. They’ve no clue what life’s like now. Things are different. Times have changed.”

  She tosses her mascara back into her makeup bag and turns to me. “You’re nineteen years old damn it! An adult! And, you can make your own decisions about what you’re capable of.”

  While her speech would be motivating for an average nineteen year old, I find my own motivating factor in one name, Samson Crest. Now that I’m calmed down I’m remembering what I read about him back at the facility those last couple of days. The surveillance file. Sam was in and out of two nightclubs here in Miami. Nightclubs I’m positive he owns. But what were the names of them? I look up at Corinna’s reflection. “So, you’re going to the club?”

  The concerned look on her face remains as she looks at my reflection. “ Oh hun, I really wish you’d go with me. I totally understand if you don’t want to because of what happened tonight. Just crash here and I’ll try not to be too late.”