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

by Venessa Kimball

  His eyes drift to my hand still on his chest then stray to my neck, and then travel to my lips, hovering there for a moment. He doesn’t have to share his thought for me to know he wants to kiss me. His eyes return to mine with the same reckless passion I saw that night he opened his heart and soul to me without expectations in the Kyoto safe house. Deep and determined, his voice makes my legs go weak. “A love so raw, so pure, that it could capture and save someone like me.”

  I lean in, wanting to feel his lips against mine. “Xander—”

  He pulls back from me, holding my face in his palms. “Please, just let me say this.”

  His wavering voice makes me want to cry out for him, but I bite my lip to keep my own sob from escaping as he releases his freely. “The time is coming when that raw love will need to be defined.” Unable to stay away, he closes in on me again. “Jes, promise me you won’t ignore that defining moment out of fear of hurting one of us.”

  I lean in and run my lips against his gently again.

  Xander sucks in a breath as his whispers seduces me. “The one that holds your heart and soul will be the only remaining constant in this fucked up evolving world.”

  Just as he always does, Xander has stripped away my defenses, leaving my soul bare and enrapturing me with a passion that surprises and scares me all at the same time. The fear is what I decide to act on. I try to pull away from him, run away from how naked he has left me, but Xander blocks my escape and holds me still, forcing me to look at him. His reddened eyes narrow on me as he voice breaks. “Promise me. Promise that you won’t run and hide from that moment because you don’t want to hurt either of us.”

  I can’t promise that. I try to pull my face out of his hands, but he holds me firmly. I close my eyes and whimper, “You don’t know what I’m thinking.”

  Xander keeps me still, “I know everything Jesca. Every thought and emotion you have felt, the emotions you are feeling now, have passed freely since the intersection.

  My thick voice shakes, “You knew everything I have been thinking and you didn’t say anything? Why tell me this now?”

  “I tried to let you figure things out on your own. I didn’t want to interfere or influence you in any way. Watching you breaking just now, your thoughts and feelings racing through my head, the memories, I couldn’t sit back and let you tear yourself apart any longer.”

  Xander releases my face and steps away from me. Holding our gaze, I shake my head as my tears start to dry on my cheeks. “The only promises I can make to you is that I will get Nate, Ezra, and myself back here safe, seal the veil and fight for our world. I can’t promise anything else.”

  Xander rests his hands on hips and looks down at the ground in front of him. His sigh is deep, tired and frustrated with my response. “You can make one promise to me. One I will hold you to.”

  I won’t lie that I’m fearful of what he’s going to make me promise.

  As he looks into my eyes, he says, “Promise me you won’t fight me going with you. You can’t keep me from helping you Jes. I will find a way to get there if you leave me, you know I fucking will.”

  I know he will, because that’s Xander––he doesn’t give up. I lean my head against the wall and whisper, “Okay.”

  As Xander turns and walks away from me, his hands intertwined behind his head, I don’t look away until he disappears around the corner.

  CHAPTER 11: PREMONITION

  Jesca

  Somehow, I found sleep quickly when I found my way back to my room. The sound is peaceful perfection when it pulls me from my oblivion. Swift-moving water moving over rocks, flowing through crevices and inlets as it makes progress to an unknown destination; a stream. I don’t want to open my eyes. I just want to listen and be still with the constant soothing sound. Then, a splash interrupts the peaceful constant. Another splash and another. Quick breathing paired with the repetitive splashing of someone drudging through the water. As quickly as it started, the splashing stops. The breathing is no longer coming from someone outside of myself—it’s me. Opening my eyes, I see the lake I’ve run by most of my life in Kennesaw Park.

  I scan the landscape, the lake placid and the sky overcast with heavy clouds. The sound of nature is mute, an eerie silence, but the wind blows leaves all around me as the breeze brushes against me.

  I have only been on this outlet a handful of times. The last time was when I was being chased by something and I came upon Ezra fishing in the lake. I look off into the distance and see something I had never noticed before in that handful of times of visiting the spot. Beyond the lake, lies a meadow, then a river, and just beyond that lies a steep ridge cresting into a plateau housing one large mound with two smaller ones nearby. I can only make out the mounds for a moment before they begin to fade into an approaching mist.

  Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, I’m taken from the outlet to the bank of the river, like I’ve uncontrollably ‘jumped’ there. I look up at the steep ridge on the other side of the river and see a series of silhouettes. The whispering is light and fleeting, barely audible and definitely not English. Startlingly, I’m grabbed from behind, my mouth covered to keep me silent. I panic and try and pull away, fight my way loose, when I’m thrust forward out of the hold and towards the river. The only problem––my body never hits the water. Instead, I’m falling, reaching for empty air as I plummet deeper into nothingness.

  Suddenly, I’m yanked up and it pulls me out of the dream and back to my bed, sitting upright gasping for air. With the dream state lifting from my mind, I catch a silhouette out of the corner of my eye.

  “Jesca.”

  The static whisper hisses as her energy passes through me––Anna, my mother. I should feel relaxed, at ease, but I can’t. Not after seeing her tossed against the wall of the cabin the last time I saw her.

  Finding my voice, I say shakily, “I didn’t think I would see you again after—”

  Anna walking toward me, then the audible click of the lamp next to me has me lose track of what I’m saying. Sitting on the edge of the bed next to me, she folds her arms over her chest, a small smile illuminating her face. In awe of how real she feels suddenly. “Did you just turn on that light?”

  She nods.

  “How did you do that?”

  “I’m closer these days.”

  Thoughtlessly, I reach for her hands. It’s a strange sensation to hold the pure energy of a soul’s electrifying weight. “After Michael sent you away, the intersection came. Michael was there and I tried to kill him. I thought I had until Sebastian and Balthazar told me they couldn’t find his body. Sam, he tried to pull me into the vortex. There was a struggle––Nate and Ezra pulled him in. They are beyond the veil.”

  My voice starts to crack as I retell and relive the trauma of that night. “We think that Michael slipped through the vortex during our struggle, putting him in the same realm as Nate, Ezra and Sam.”

  I grip her hand tighter. “You said that things weren’t as they seemed. Sam wasn’t as he seemed is what you meant.”

  She closes her eyes and nods. “And if Michael is there, he will kill them. I have to go.”

  She starts to pull away, but I hold onto her hand to keep her still. “No, wait. How do you know where they are? Are you in the same place beyond the veil?”

  She shakes her head. “No, where I am is not the same, but still beyond the veil of your universe.”

  My universe? I question, “Heaven?”

  She looks down at our hands, and then raises her glassy eyes back to meet mine. “You are on the right path. And if there is a heaven—”

  I finish before she can. “Then there’s a hell.”

  Anna looks down at our hands. “You had a vision tonight. It was meant to prepare you for your legacy. When I was young, I had them too. Sebastian, he helped me understand why I was purposed with them. He will help you understand too,
in time.”

  She knows what I saw. “You mean the mounds? It is a premonition, isn’t it?”

  She nods. “For centuries ancient people have constructed monuments as guide, symbols for us to follow. A possible means to our origins and our salvation. You have experienced one of these monuments in your lifetime, not just in your visions. It has been revealed in your vision because you are connected to it. You are the root of the legacy Jesca.”

  Her hand dissolves in mine leaving me wondering how I could be the root of this legacy. “Wait, why me?”

  Anna stands in the middle of the room, looking at me. “The answers will come in time.”

  As her body fragments and dissolves as it passes through the door of my room, the pounding on the other side startles me. “Jesca!”

  It’s Xander! I rush to the door and as soon as I open it, Xander is pushing passed me with Corinna in his arms.

  Breathlessly, Xander says, “I was coming to check on you and I saw her standing in the middle of your hallway staring at your door. When I reached her, she collapsed. I don’t know how she got out of her room or passed the staff.”

  Xander takes her to my bed and sits her down on the edge. Her eyes are pinched closed and she is rocking back and forth. She says my name over and over again breathlessly, “Jesca, Jesca, Jesca, Jesca.”

  I sit next to her and cradle her as best I can while she rocks. I brush her hair away from her face and hush her. “Shhh. I’m right here Corinna.”

  Her rocking stops and she grasps for my hand with both of hers. Her eyes are still a beautiful pale blue as they meet mine. They are rimmed with dark circles though and her face is ashen. She looks like death has warmed over her.

  Her voice is wavering and weak when she says, “It’s Sam. I can feel him all around me.” Corinna releases one of her hands from mine and pounds her chest three times. “I can feel him inside.”

  She taps her index finger on the side of her head. “And here.”

  Her brows furrow and eyes narrow. “Sam is not himself. He’s being controlled. Michael, he’s behind this! It’s him! It’s always him!”

  Everything about her is frightening me as I continue to look at her actions and her appearance. “What did Michael do, Corinna?”

  Corinna twitches, and then looks at me with fear in her eyes. “I need to show you. It’s Sam.” She reaches her hand out to me.

  I look down at her shaking hand, and then up at Xander wondering if I should offer my hands to her. Monica said she was unstable, what if she tries to attack me. I look back down at Corinna. Her lips are twitching, making small movements, like she is talking to someone, but no sound is releasing. Whatever is going on inside of her right now, it’s still breaking her, trying to come out. She said it’s Sam. What if he’s trying to tell us something through her? Is it possible?

  Slowly, I reach for her hand. Before I touch it, Xander catches my hand in his and warns, “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

  I don’t look at him. I keep my eyes on Corinna’s jerking hand. “If Sam is trying to reach us through her, I have to do this.”

  Xander looks down at Corinna, then back at me. “If she tries anything, I’m taking her out, no hesitation.”

  I nod and pray that won’t have to happen as I take her hand and close my eyes.

  CHAPTER 12: WATCHER

  Sam

  Unmoved, I watch them. The kid, Nate, was choking and Ezra was talking to him, trying to calm him. They kept looking off away from each other and talking. Were they communicating with someone else? Could it be Anna? Or maybe they are able to reach back home.

  I do a brief inventory in my head, like I am searching a house for a trespasser; he has been silent within me for the past few minutes. It feels like he has left my mind, but I am not one hundred percent sure. This may be the only chance to do something. My only option is to try to reach Corinna. I had to tell her to warn Jesca. I wasn’t strong enough to keep him from getting into my head for Anna’s sake. I can try to do right by her daughter and her legacy. I have to tell her what has happened while I still am able. Please let her hear me Corinna.

  ***

  I came to consciousness feeling the pound of my head; it must have taken a big blow. My eyes fluttered open, landing directly on the sunlight through the tree above me. I closed my eyes and tried to shield them with my arm, but I couldn’t lift it. It was weighted down by something heavy. I turned to see what was preventing my movement. Perched like a vulture over its prey was a man I had never seen before squatting next to me with his hands pressed against my arm. I try and pull it free, but my arm does not budge under his strength.

  The man says, “Hello, Sam,” in a voice he should not possess.

  I must have been in shock because I can’t speak. I had just heard Michael Sanderson’s voice come from a man I had never seen before today.

  The man suddenly chuckled, the sound absorbed by the surroundings. “You look like you have seen a ghost, Sam.”

  I can’t wrap my head around the voice that just came from this stranger’s mouth. I am stunned; it’s Michael’s voice. The man saw the loss of his joke on me and his wide-toothed smile fell into a grimace.

  My voice sounded like sandpaper when I spoke, “Why are you in that body?”

  Michael crossed his arms over his chest. “The form I have taken is for your sake actually. You have entered a realm in a universe where physical attributes of a being are not needed like they are on earth.”

  I studied him for a moment too long and his face shifted rapidly into an unnatural angle then transformed into the image of Michael. I whispered, “What the hell?”

  Michael lowered his head, and then looked up at me through hooded eyes. “Yes, this place has been called that among other names. Let’s just stick with the black hole within the Andromeda galaxy for now. They were once us, you know. Then they became tainted, lost souls. This is where they go, Sam. So, they are not so alien after all, just a different form of us.”

  I’m sure I appeared shocked, so Michael continued to explain, “When the abductees transplanted with the Sondian Copulas started showing signs of distress from an external force and we located it to Andromeda, the pieces started coming together nicely. The Copula was the conduit drawing them to us. When I asked you to assist with the traversing, you with your God complex—”

  I cut him off, “My reasons for wanting to assist you are not what you think. I had my own motivation.”

  Michael replied, “Actually, I know your reasons very well, Sam.”

  I didn’t understand.

  He continued, “It was so easy to get into your head, Sam. Just a little bit at a time, influencing, probing, encouraging your rage.”

  My stomach began to churn as he speaks. His chuckle was low and heavy. “I was in your head when you fell in love with Anna. I was in your head when you saw her with Ezra. I was there when you planned to confront her. I was there when your hatred for Ezra was building, growing stronger and stronger. I was in your head the night before you planned to take her. I was in your head when you ended her life. I was there when you fled. And, I have been there every time you have thought of ways to get to her, to make things right. And, that is why you are here, Sam. I made you believe this place was where you could find her, but it’s not.”

  He pouts his face. “You want to ask her for forgiveness for taking her from her husband and her daughter. Forgiveness for coveting her, because she would never be yours. She always belonged to another, to Kahn. And nothing you could have done would have changed that.”

  No matter how badly I wanted to deny it, he was right. He spoke all of the thoughts and emotions I lived with and experienced. He was in there and I didn’t even realize it. Was he there when I caused the accident that claimed Xander’s parents lives? Did he have control over me then? Did he put the evil tendencies in my head? If I had
known, would I have stopped before I killed her? Or, was it always in my hands to control and I just chose not to because of my hatred?

  Michael shook his head at me and put his hands in his pockets. “It was always up to you. Free will. I wanted to see if you would do it on your own accord. And, you did. You killed her just as if it were my hands wielding the knife. With my taking control of your mind, you set up the accident that killed Xander’s parents with such precision, like you were created to do such things.”

  I closed my eyes and pushed down the bile coming up into my throat. Michael continued, “I knew there was a chance of you not following orders.” He taps his head. “Remember, I had been in there for years. I thought you might break under the pressure of being a cold-blooded murderer and a serial abductor for our fellowship. You have done some terrible things in your lifetime, Samson Crest.”

  He laughed softly then folded his hands back over his chest. “That is why I went to Japan. I made the excuse of taking care of Corinna while you traversed, so I could check up on you and make sure you followed through.”

  I ground my teeth and shot back at him, “And, now you are here. How’d that plan work out for you?”

  Michael smiled. “Yes, body and soul, just as you. That little bitch, Jesca, tried to kill me and save Miriam and her child. She should have come back to finish me off.”

  He put his hand over his abdomen. “Her strike was true, but I was able to astral project to the vortex while you, Nate, Ezra, Xander and Jesca were struggling. I slipped right in, undetected.”

  He opened his palms to the sky. “And, here I am.” He looked down at himself. “The soulless here, they like us, Sam––villainous and wicked. When I arrived, they helped heal me and made me as good as new.”

  “What did you have to offer in exchange?”

  Michael moved closer to me. “This vessel. My body when I return to Earth. They will need it to adapt to our world.”