Agnus stepped closer to the recruits and took over again.
“Before we start the interviews I will let you know one thing, I’m not hard to get along with but I do have one rule. I hate swearing and while I can tolerate a slip up now and then, if I ever hear you use the Lords name in vain I will rip your tongue out to teach you a lesson. As most of you know, it will grow back but it will be one of the most painful experiences you have ever had.” Agnus stared around the room and she noticed a few of the younger recruits snickering. These were fairly large men, if you could call a twenty year old a man. Irritation radiated from Agnus and she gripped the clipboard angrily.
Charles could sense Agnus’s annoyance even from behind and was quick to come to her defense. The giant man took a few steps toward them and the men quickly quit snickering.
“For your information, and continued good health, I suggest you respect your elders around here. Agnus may not look like a hardened warrior but she was fighting off vampires before your parents, parents were born. I for one would not want to make her mad. She could take me down in a heartbeat.” Charles then turned around and walked back to his spot.
On the way by, Agnus placed her small hand on his giant arm and said kindly. “I appreciate the support, dear, but I can handle them.”
Charles was quick to answer and in a loud voice replied. “Oh I’m sure you can handle them. I was just worried they might not take you seriously. We don’t want half this year’s recruits in the hospital on the first day. I mean not again.” Charles smiled with his face away from the recruits. Mark was standing off to himself so he could see it was just a tactic to keep them in line. That wasn’t to say that Mark didn’t take Agnus seriously. If Agnus was anything like Sarah, she could probably put them all in the hospital if she chose to. Angus bowed her head and pretended to look at her clipboard but it was clear she was smiling.
“Now we will start the interviews, assign bunks and jobs. Don’t worry, I am fluent in many languages in case English is not your first language.” Agnus then headed over to a small desk with two chairs on one side and one on the other. Somehow Mark hadn’t noticed these when he first walked in. The other new recruits all began to mill around and form a line, Mark took up the rear.
The process started out slowly and picked up quickly as Agnus lost patience with the million questions. Each person she interviewed was set on what they thought was the best use of their talents. By the time she got half way through them the interviews took only a couple minutes. Agnus would listen to a brief description of what the person used to do and assign them a job. Charles was there to usher the person out and hand them their bedding.
When it was Mark’s turn Agnus was mentally exhausted from arguing and trying to explain things like why a human resource manager was of little use to their little town. Mark sat down and Agnus said in a frustrated and tired voice. “What should I call you?”
“Mark,” Mark replied meekly.
“And what did you use to do?” Agnus asked dryly while making some comments on her clipboard.
“I was a computer programmer, but Sarah…” Mark tried to give Agnus the message from Sarah and was quickly cut off.
“Before you ask a million questions let me stop you there,” Agnus began. “Sarah explained the one for one concept?” Agnus asked and Mark nodded so Agnus continued. “Ok then, you are not Sarah’s one, Sarah already knows who her one is and you’re not it. Since Sarah is not here and she usually does most of this, I’m winging it. I’m not sure why she picked you, what skills she saw in you but until she comes back you will be assigned to help an expert in some field. When you finally find something that you’re good at we’ll talk again. Charles…” Agnus motioned for Charles and he walked over and handed Mark some bedding before trying to usher him out.
“But…” Mark tried to relay Sarah’s message but Agnus just waved her hand at him.
“You’ll find out it’s not so bad,” Agnus said, was done with interviews and wanted no more of Mark.
“Wait,” Mark said struggling against Charles. The large man found it strange that a new recruit was able to struggle against him so effectively and gave Mark a curious look. “Sarah had a message for you.” Mark blurted out.
“It’s ok,” Agnus said as she motioned for Mark to come back. “What was the message?” Agnus was still patronizing but figured it was the fastest way to be done with this.
“She said she had to go to Europe to find out how Sariel knew about Jen and how he knew that Sarah had taken me to that hotel and what room we were in.” Mark waited patiently for a response.
Agnus’s eyes lit up. “Oh you’re Sarah’s Mark?!”
“What?” Mark asked not quite sure what Agnus meant by that.
“I mean Jen’s Mark,” Agnus quickly recovered. “I’m very sorry for your loss.” Then Mark saw anger across the woman’s face as she turned her gaze to Charles. “My brother better hope Sarah can keep her vow. He’s just lucky she is as repentant as she is. A lesser woman, me for example, might just forsake my vow and rip his freaking head off.” Agnus turned back and addressed Mark again. “He’s just darn lucky you weren’t killed also or I don’t think Sarah’s vow would stop her. I mean if he had killed Charles…” Charles put his hand on Agnus’s shoulder.
“Calm down dear, I’m fine, Mark’s fine, and I’m sure Sarah will be fine. She just went to find out information. Mark’s here, she won’t be doing anything stupid,” Charles assured her.
Mark felt like he was missing something but he couldn’t quite figure out what. Mark got the impression that Charles and Agnus were partners but beyond that he had no idea why him being there meant that Sarah would be back. Was he that important to their cause? What made him so special? Sarah acted like she had been waiting for him a long time. What was he supposed to do, a computer programmer, fighting a war against vampires?
“You won’t be needing these,” Agnus said as she took the bedding from Mark. “Sarah has a house all ready for you and…I’m so sorry.” Agnus looked depressed again.
“It’s ok, for me and Jen, right?” Mark asked trying to help.
“Yes, and…” Agnus’s face suddenly looked frightened. “Where’s Katie?!”
“Sarah sent her to live with some friends of hers. She felt Katie needed to be away from all of this until it was safer for her. I now realize that she was right.” Mark didn’t want to go into details about how Katie thought he had killed Jen nor how much he hated the idea, even if Sarah had done the right thing.
“I’m so sorry, I guess when you love someone that much the sacrifice is worth it,” Agnus said sounding disheartened. “I had a child once, if only I had Sarah to help me, maybe he might still be alive.”
“We’ll give you some time, once all the adrenaline and confusion wears off you may find the grief hard to deal with. Your job will be waiting for you when you’re ready for it,” Charles said with pity in his eyes.
“I’m sorry for your loss, I don’t know what I would do if something bad would happen to Katie too,” Mark said staring at Charles.
“The child was not mine,” Charles started to explain and Agnus put her hand on his.
“Back when I thought I was human I was forced to marry another Nephilim. We did our duty and had a child even though we knew we didn’t love each other. That was the way things were done back then. When the vampires came and killed my son and husband, Sarah saved me. I didn’t want to go on but somehow she helped me get through it. Centuries later I finally found Charles.” Agnus looked up at Charles with adoration then turned back to Mark. “My point is, as bad as it gets, it will get better. You still have Katie.”
Mark tried to change the subject, the grief was beginning to come back to him and he didn’t want to break down in front of people he had just met. Talking about these things only made them worse.
“So what will my job be?” Mark asked, trying to change the subject.
“You will be Agnus’s assistant. We hear you are qu
ite smart,” Charles replied.
“But I only know English, I’m not sure how much help I’ll be. Besides, Sarah made it sound like you wouldn’t really need anyone’s help.” Mark really didn’t see himself being able to help Agnus, he was just a programmer. What did he know about ancient history?
“Oh Sarah. Did she give you the Agnus is up here, and we’re down here speech?” Agnus said mimicking the hand movements Sarah had used.
“Umm, yes,” Mark replied, clearly confused.
“Well, unlike these recruits, you actually know Sarah. Do you really think there are many people out there smarter than her?” Agnus asked with a half-smile.
“No,” Mark said smiling back.
“Yeah,” Agnus said with a knowing look. “That stuff works on a lot of people, but the people who really know her, they can tell she’s much more than she pretends to be.”
Agnus then grabbed Charles’s hand and put her other arm over Mark’s shoulders. The two of them led Mark to the house Sarah had prepared for him and said their goodbyes.
“We live just down the street, this one is Sarah’s.” Agnus pointed at the small house between hers and Mark’s. “If you need anything, we’re only two houses down. Don’t hesitate to ask. If you don’t feel like coming to work for right away, don’t worry about it. Once you’ve had time to process everything I’ll be at the library.” Agnus pointed up the street to a large building that looked exactly as Mark thought a library should look. Then Charles and Agnus walked down the sidewalk to their door and Mark was left all alone.
Chapter 12
Mark spent the two weeks after arriving in the settlement alone in his new home. This house Sarah had made for him was much too large for one person. Sarah had designed the house for a family of three. There were two bedrooms, a den, a large living room and a moderate sized kitchen. Someone had stocked the house with food in preparation for his arrival so he didn’t even have to leave the house.
He went through all the stages of grief. He found himself mad at Jen for leaving him, Sariel for killing her and at one point even Sarah for not being there to help him through this. He blamed himself, wanted revenge for Jen’s death and had even considered suicide. If it had not been for Katie being alive and safe somewhere he might have actually tried but he couldn’t do that to her. Some day she would find out the truth and she might need him.
After a couple weeks, Mark started going in to work. Slowly at first, he’d come in for a few hours then return to his home to be alone with his thoughts. Agnus was very considerate and never once chastised him for his sporadic schedule. She invited him to share supper with her and Charles several times but Mark always had an excuse for why he didn’t show up. It took months for Mark to get over his depression but when he did, he found Charles and Agnus to be good friends.
Over the next year and a half he spent a good deal of his time at the library. Once he got over his self-declared lack of ability with historical researching, he found that he was actually not bad at it. He even found that he enjoyed translating old documents. It was like a puzzle. He would use the translation software to get a rough translation of the texts then it would be his job to go over every word to make sure it was translated correctly within its context. It was long and arduous work but the end results were beautifully written accounts of man’s first dealings with God and his angels. They were working on documents written about the time between the creation of man and the great flood of Noah. These documents were written by Noah’s descendants in some of the earliest writings known to man. While most of them were trivial things, they were quite interesting, and all of the translations were great accomplishments in their own right. The work at least gave Mark something to focus on to keep his mind off of his grief.
Mark was given his own office in the library and many times he would find himself listening to the radio while he worked. He was particularly fond of one station that reminded him of Katie.
This station was a religious station that covered many topics. It had been started by a billionaire that lost his wife in a car accident. The man decided that since he had no living descendants to give his fortune to he would use his vast wealth to provide a real religious radio station. One that didn’t beg people for donations, in fact, it was forbidden for the station to receive them. The man thought this way the people working there could concentrate on the real message instead of spending so much time worrying about money. This station was non-denominational and provided different slots for many religions. The man had the idea that no religion was the right religion. They were all different views about a power that mankind could barely comprehend. His beliefs brought a lot of controversy but after a few years it was clear that no one was going to change his mind.
While Jen and Mark had been moderately religious Katie loved everything related to God. She would sit in her room for hours listening to this station while she played with dolls and toys. As she got older she found friends, friends that would tease her about listening to this station but Katie was a very opinionated girl. She didn’t care what the other girls said, she loved this station and they weren’t going to come between her and what she loved.
Mark recalled a particularly memorable event when Katie was thirteen. She had invited a friend to stay the night, her best friend at the time. This girl’s parents must have been very opposed to religion because when Katie turned on her favorite station the girl started an argument with her. Perhaps the argument had been Katie’s fault perhaps not, Mark never really found out. The end result was the girl storming downstairs and Mark giving her a ride home. Katie and this girl never spoke again. To this day Mark didn’t know what the argument had entailed. Katie had always confided in her mother and mother-daughter conversations were private in their house. Sometimes Mark wished Katie had been able to talk to him about things but he was grateful that Jen and Katie had been so close.
The views presented by this station provided Mark with a way to be close to Katie. He would picture her, wherever she was, listening to this same station. He wondered what she looked like now. How hard it must have been for her to lose both her parents. Was she adjusting to her new life or struggling with it like he was? Mark desperately wanted to see his little sweetheart even though she was no longer a little girl.
Over time Mark quit asking about Sarah. No one knew where she was or if she was coming back. Mark realized that asking Agnus for updates about Sarah only upset her so he stopped asking altogether. Mark spent the little time he wasn’t in the library with Charles learning self-defense. Mark and Charles had become good friends. Mark found that he considered Charles a closer friend than anyone from his office. He had spent nearly twenty years at that office and didn’t have one real friend except for Sarah.
Mark missed Sarah, he found that when he wasn’t in the library and he wasn’t with Charles, all he did was think about Jen, Katie and Sarah. How had Sarah become so important to him? She was his sister-in-law but somehow she was a lot more. She had been his best friend for most of his adult life but there was more to it than that. He felt drawn to her. He couldn’t put it into words but she was very important to him. Mark had never felt anything like this before, except when it came to Jen. It wasn’t the same as he felt for Katie. Katie was his daughter, that kind of love has no comparison. That was it! He loved Sarah, but how could he? Asuune get one love and there was no doubt in his mind that Jen had been his perfect partner. His feelings for Sarah felt exactly the same as his feelings for Jen. How could that be? How could he love Sarah the same? Despite his reservations Mark knew he loved Sarah. The more he thought about it the more sure he became. He loved Sarah exactly the way he had loved Jen. The problem was that Sarah already knew who her partner was, her one, he would just have to live with being her best friend. If she ever came back.
After almost two years Sarah finally returned to the small town Mark called home now. She was greeted like a celebrity. Nearly everyone in the town knew Sarah and nearly everyone came to find o
ut where she had been. Like Mark always did, he waited in the back of the line. He didn’t want to seem too eager to see her. He didn’t want to smother her. She was just his friend, that’s all she could ever be. He needed to learn to live with it.
When the crowd had died down and only Mark, Agnus and Charles were left, Sarah ushered them to the library. She had news, news that wasn’t appropriate to share with everyone else. When the four of them were finally alone Sarah rushed at Mark. She threw her arms wide and Mark nearly had to catch her.
“Oh I’ve missed you,” Sarah said as she dug her face into his chest.
Mark didn’t want to look too excited but he couldn’t help himself. The warmth of her body pressed against him, the smell of her, he couldn’t resist. He hugged her back much longer than he thought he should have but Sarah didn’t seem to mind. This only confused Mark more.
“So, I have a lot to tell you,” Sarah said when she finally decided to let go of Mark. “And damn you’ve gotten strong.”
Agnus gave Sarah a disapproving look.
Sarah smiled at Agnus and put her arm around her shoulders then spoke to Mark.
“Has she ever told you why she is called Agnus?” Sarah asked with her contagiously upbeat attitude.
Curse of the Asuune Page 9
