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

by Venessa Kimball

  Nate’s voice is filled with caution now. “How close?”

  The soldier leading in the front calls back, “I’m sure they are watching us from the surrounding woods. We are about one hundred yards out. Let’s pick up the pace, boys. Not too fast not too slow.”

  The soldiers around us pick up their pace and we have gone from a brisk walk to a light jog, maintaining the tight formation.

  Elicia calls from behind, “Why not fast? The faster we move the sooner we are safe.”

  One of the soldiers bordering us scoffs, “The faster we move, the more fun the chase is for them. Slow is safe.”

  Nick gags, “Agh, what is that smell?”

  Another soldier on the line says, “Third Tuesday of the month. You will get used to it.”

  “Third Tuesday of the month. What does that mean?”

  There is no response to my question, just the sound of gravel deadening below our shoes and metal rubbing metal from the soldiers’ hand rifles.

  “We are here, open her up!” the lead soldier calls out into the darkness. We are in the middle of nowhere; we aren’t close to anything!

  The suffocating darkness is flooded with a bright, white light growing wider and wider as a giant metal door opens. Seeing our goal in sight, our line moves quicker. The next wave of vibrations deep inside of me sets my entire body into a spasm; I wretch forward and stumble. Solid hands take hold of me from either side, keeping me from falling as I pinch my eyes closed until this wave of vertigo passes.

  “I’ve got you, Jes.”

  The warm whisper on my ear tells me who kept me from falling––Nate. I take hold of his hands around my waist and squeeze them. Remembering my promise to myself, I drop my hands from covering his and move on my own.

  We are coming up on the threshold of the metal doors as four soldiers run past us, locking and loading their automatic rifles. The shooting begins immediately and sets our line in a dead sprint into what looks like a compound. The soldiers around us are visible now; black helmets, black fatigues head to toe. They push us farther beyond the door and start pulling guns from holsters and loading rifles.

  One of the soldiers hands me his tactical shield. “Hold this!”

  I grab a hold of it just as he turns and starts shooting his rifle into the night. Monica, Jake, Siobhan and the rest of the team rush the door with shields in their hands and try to seek additional shelter in this open area of the compound as the metal door begins to close. Outside, in the darkness, I see only the black of night against the assault of firearms as the soldiers shoot into the darkness at the Dwellers. I feel someone pulling me, trying to get me to move deeper into the compound, but I hold still. I need to see what they look like. Do they look the same as they did beyond the veil? Black orbs, slithering, slinking in to attack. Or, the way they looked in the video back at the facility moments before they took a vessel to dwell in or kill immediately.

  I feel my stomach lurch as I catch sight of one of them. The face—it is almost human, once human, now consumed. The eyes, they are black as night, no white at all. The sockets are sunken with red-streaked veins jutting above the skin, spidering out toward the sharp skeletal cheekbones of the being. The movements they make; walking, running, they are unnatural, but quick, like something acting within the body that doesn’t know how to direct it in its normal capacity. The body jerks into a crouch, then jumps, arms splayed out toward me. Thinking fast, I swing the shield and send the Dweller soaring toward the doors. The body hits metal and collapses to the ground in front of the sealed doors. I blink just for a second and, within that time, the Dweller is back on its feet staring at me. No one around me moves. Everyone freezes as this sole Dweller stands motionless. The soldiers’ guns are drawn, awaiting its next move. As its chilling eyes meet mine, its taut mouth stretches into a rancid inhuman smile. The beastly being shakes its head from side to side slowly, sending a chill straight to my core.

  “Ezra?”

  Ezra’s voice shakes as he responds to my call, “I see it.”

  The vessel’s mouth widens beyond the capacity a human mouth could ever achieve. Paired with the brutal angle of the arched back and neck, the images from the files in Florida flood my mind again. A small puff of blackened smoke hovers above the vessel’s mouth. Slowly, the black mist grows tendrils that stretch and pull from the body. Seeing what I see, the soldiers release gunfire, filling the compound with the echoing chaos of bullets zipping and the most savage scream I’ve ever heard. I drop to the ground, tucking my body, and covering my ears, but keeping my eyes fixed on the Dweller as the body it is trying to escape trembles from the force of the bullets.

  I’ve seen some disturbing shit, but seeing this malignant, evil, inhuman Dweller escaping from a human body to attempt saving itself, is now on the top of my growing list of disturbing shit. My stomach twists and the humming within me spikes as I watch the inky snake-like tendrils reach up above the body and take shape into long, thin arms, oval-shaped head and the length of a torso.

  The soldiers continue raining bullets on the inky form as it completely separates from the human vessel and hovers in mid-air, taking each bullet with no effect. The Dweller descends back to the ground, standing on the tendrils that have formed into legs.

  I only have one thought in my mind now. It is going to charge me.

  I should run, but where would I go? I feel the humming within me shift to a mushrooming force deep inside of me. I haven’t tried releasing it since being back in our world. What if I can’t release it? Monica said our abilities might change or not come back at all. The figure crouches low and teases, first moving in toward me fast and bestially, then slow and calculating. One of the soldiers blocks its advance, but he has no effect. The Dweller tosses the soldier aside like a crumbled piece of paper and continues pursuing its target, me. Okay, here goes nothing.

  I focus on the swelling power inside of me, power that has been forced to dormancy but is now pulling it deep within my chest until I feel like I’m going to burst. I remember this feeling, this growing, building white-fire feeling I had beyond the veil when I tried to stop Michael from crossing back over to our universe, our world.

  With the Dweller inches from me, I release the power I’ve grown, aiming it straight into the core of the repulsive predator. I watch the power take shape as it pours from me, glowing white vapor escalating from my body and hitting the Dweller in its center. Upon impact, the Dweller is tossed backward, inches from the threshold separating the world from the compound entrance. Shit, my abilities worked!

  The Dweller’s recoil spurs me on and I don’t hold anything back. I draw deeper within and heave a stronger second wave of energy at the Dweller. The being is uprooted from the ground and thrust with full force into the metal doors. With my life force still bearing down on it, the Dweller is pinned to the metal writhing and squirming, trying to break away from my attack. The more it writhes, the more it drives me to redeem the crumbled mortal it has occupied and brought to death. Suddenly, I hear gears shift and the metal doors I have this creature pinned to separate. The Dweller takes hold of the sliver of deliverance, extends one of its flailing limbs and pulls itself through the small opening and out into the dark night.

  “No!” Supercharged by my life force returning, I rush the metal doors, ready to wedge my hands into the small crevice and pry it open.

  In the distance behind me, I think I hear someone yell, “Stop her!”

  One second I’m centimeters from touching metal, the next I’m blindsided by something large and fully padded with metal tactical gear. The soldier drops me to the ground like a sack of potatoes, wind knocked from my lungs on contact.

  Once I catch my breath, I whoop and holler, “What the hell are you doing? I had it! We can’t let it go!”

  Ignoring my rant, Xander yells, “What the hell was that? That wasn’t what we saw beyond the veil!”

 
Ezra is pacing above me, mumbling as the soldier struggles to keep me pinned to the ground.

  Jake snickers, “That’s right; you haven’t seen them in action here on Earth.”

  I start to push and shove the soldier that has clobbered me, when another soldier, equally padded, takes hold of both my arms, and locks them to the ground. As I put up a fight, he groans, “Shit, she is strong for a little gal.”

  He was right, I did seem too strong for a “little gal,” even with the abilities that I had prior to the veil. What I just did was stronger than what I’d ever done before the veil.

  Monica comes into view and peers down at me. Monica smirks and looks up at Ezra, Xander, Sebastian, Nate and the rest of the team that are now hovering around me. “She is definitely stronger. Her abilities are starting to return.”

  The gruff-voiced soldier kneels next to me, looks at me, then back at Monica. “This is the one you were talking about?”

  My glare darts from Monica to the soldier as I ask angrily, “The one you were talking about?”

  I push against the hands holding me down; not enjoying the commentary while I’m lying splayed under two heavily equipped soldiers.

  Nick’s voice breaks in, “Does that mean all of our abilities should return?”

  Ezra agrees, “Mine have started to return.”

  Monica mumbles, “Yeah, mine too, plus some bonus material.”

  Ezra’s eyes snap to her. “Like what?”

  Monica answers, “A vision of some ancient place.”

  Nate admits, “I’m seeing some things also.”

  Xander looks at Nate curiously.

  I’m about to ask Nate what he means when Nick interrupts, nudging Monica. “Will we be stronger than before?”

  Monica shakes her head, still studying me. “Not sure. Time will tell. Here, let the girl up.”

  The soldiers cautiously release me and Monica stretches her hand out for me to take. I take hold of it and pull myself up to stand next to her.

  The soldier with the gruff voice stretches his hand out to me. “Captain Jason Briggs.”

  I extend my hand to him. “Jesca Sera, the strong little gal.”

  Briggs smirks at my comment.

  Concerned, I turn to Sebastian and Ezra. “I could have taken it down, killed it. When I was using my life force against that Dweller—”

  Briggs, Elicia and Nick immediately interrupt, “Dweller?”

  Xander adds, “Wait, you named them?”

  Ezra answers for me, “Yes.”

  “It occupies and consumes us. It dwells, inhabits us, until there is no soul, no part of us left. When I was using my life force against it, I wanted to attack it. I wanted it to die. I’ve never wanted to kill something so badly in my life.”

  “It’s to be expected.”

  I turn toward the familiar voice beyond our huddled group. It is none other than Daniel Reneaux.

  CHAPTER 7: BAD BLOOD

  Jesca

  Sebastian strides over to him, pulling him into an embrace. “Daniel, what are you doing here? Why are you not at the facility in Georgia? Is everything all right?”

  As they pull apart, Daniel nods and looks at all of us. “Everything is as good as to be expected in Georgia.”

  He looks at Sebastian, “Your sons, daughter-in-law, grandchildren—” then he looks at Corinna, “Isabel—they are all safe within the facility under the Etowah Mounds.”

  Daniel moves past Sebastian and toward the center of the room, closer to me. He looks at Ezra briefly, nods, and greets him, “Ezra.”

  He doesn’t budge, just stares at him stoically, arms crossed, with his mouth set in a thin line. I’d be pissed too. Sebastian confided in Daniel long ago about the legacy, the mounds, the Onoch lineage. Both of them along with my deceased mother, Anna, kept it shrouded from him. Ezra couldn’t very well hold it against the deceased, but he could hold it against the living.

  Sensing the chill in the room aimed at Daniel, Nick mumbles audibly, “The wrath of Ezra returns.”

  Ignoring Nick’s comment, Ezra strides over to Daniel. Seeing his heated advance, Sebastian, Jake, and Xander move in on Ezra.

  Ezra glances at the guardians approaching then meets Daniel eye to eye. “I’m not going to attack anyone. I just want to know what you know. You seem to have been entrusted by Sebastian when no one else was.”

  Sebastian interrupts Ezra’s rant by calling out his name, but he doesn’t let up.

  His voice cracks, “Anna knew about the legacy and never said a word to me, even after we married and Jesca was born.” Ezra’s eyes lower and he covers his mouth, attempting to settle the building emotions within him. “When Anna died, Sebastian told me to meet with you. After leaving Jesca, my only child, with the Sera’s, I came to you, broken. I asked you to watch over Jesca, guide her, when I couldn’t. The whole time I was going through the motions, you knew about the legacy the Onoch bloodline she carried and you didn’t say anything.”

  Sebastian interrupts him, placing his hand on Ezra’s shoulder. “Ezra, we didn’t know how the legacy would affect Jesca. It could have left her untouched.”

  Ezra shrugs it off and moves closer to Daniel, nose to nose now. I wedge myself between them to stop anything before it starts. Ezra’s eyes shift to meet mine, but they don’t linger as they quickly move back to Daniel’s, waiting on an answer.

  Daniel’s voice is stern, but sincere at the same time as he says, “Telling you about the legacy when you had just lost your wife and given your only daughter to the Sera’s to raise? I considered it. Even though I knew it might break you even more than you already were, I considered it.”

  Sebastian rests his hand on Ezra’s arm. “I asked him not to. I asked him because protecting Jesca, you, the Etowah Mounds, was the most important thing. If you knew, you would have gone to the Sera’s and taken Jesca.”

  Ezra hisses through clenched teeth, “Damn right I would have!”

  Daniel speaks over Ezra, “You would have taken her to protect her but all you would have done is draw in the very forces we were keeping from her, you and the legacy.”

  “Look, I understand there is a lot that needs to be discussed, but we don’t have much time here before our little dwell buddies try attacking again,” says Briggs. He looks at me. “You’re their target and they know you’re here now.”

  The image of the Dweller stalking me lingers in my mind. “Why didn’t you let me kill it? You just let it go.”

  “Your abilities couldn’t kill it, only hold it back. All you were doing was drawing the others. They attack when one is under duress. The only choice was to let it go.”

  Briggs anchors his rifle over his shoulder and I realize that this soldier knows more about these Dwellers than he should have to. He has experienced the attacks enough to know their method, their patterns.

  “We need to gather supplies, food, ammunition, and then you can talk. Dawn is only a couple of hours away, and then they will go inactive. For now, we need to go deeper into the compound.”

  Briggs glances over the gathered guardians, then back to me. “You were beyond the veil, right?”

  I nod. “Yeah.”

  Briggs lifts his chin toward the metal doors. “Then I’m sure they smelled you a mile away.” He turns on his heels and the rest of the soldiers follow behind him. He calls out, “Vasquez and Schmidt, on cleanup.”

  Two soldiers turn back and head toward the bodies at the entrance. The guardians and I catch up to Briggs and his men, but I can’t help looking back at the two soldiers left to tend to the fallen.

  CHAPTER 8: THE FARM

  Jesca

  The compound reminds me of my facility in Nevada, cavernous in some parts, industrial in others. Not like the institutional Kyoto facility though.

  “No facility will ever compare to ours,” say
s Nate as he walks beside me.

  I’ve so much to say to that, but I don’t. It will just complicate things between us again. I settle on something simple. “No, they won’t.”

  Nate’s arm grazes mine as he leans in to whisper, “Jes, I know what you’re doing.”

  I want to tell him that he has no idea what I’m doing or how I’m feeling for that matter. He doesn’t know anything now that the link between us is gone. I notice Corinna and Sam just ahead of us. Responding to Nate would be dangerous and I need an excuse to break away from him before I say something that has the potential of stirring up things between us. When I reach Corinna, I put my hand on her arm gently. “Hey.”

  When she turns to me, I notice how different, healthier, she looks than she did when we were in Kyoto. The difference in her skin color is drastic. Her skin looked waning and now it’s vibrant. Her eyes are soft, not maniacal like they were when Sam was gone beyond the veil. Her lips are no longer chapped and flaking, but rather smooth and touched with color now. It’s like she has been rejuvenated from her old, withered self.

  She responds with a soft smile, “Hey.”

  I glance at Sam and nod. He returns the gesture, then quickly looks down, keeping the steady pace of the group. I can tell he’s still tortured by his acts. No matter how many times we forgive him, his own guilt is unwavering, eating away at him. I feel bad for him. I look back at Corinna. “You look so different.”

  She bows her head graciously and looks down as we continue to walk. “I am. Monica says that Sam and I are both responding well to the new Copula.”

  Sam pulls Corinna’s hand to his mouth and kisses it gently as we continue to follow the soldiers down a long hall.

  Briggs quickly points out the basics when we get to an enclosed cavern he calls. “The barracks. Grab a duffle, pull supplies. We have it all spread out in containers.” He starts pulling out large Tupperware bins and opens the lids. He continues, “Pants and tops. Sorry, ladies, black is our signature color here.”