The Nephelium Read online

  “Eve,” Leah spoke caringly, but also very sternly. “I can’t change what you have gone through, and I may not be able to answer all your questions, but what I do know is this: you are closer now to answers than you have ever been. If you turn around now and walk away, whether you believe at this point or not, you may never--no, you will never--understand any of it.

  “There is no easy way to get you to see this; and, unfortunately, you are correct. You have been through hell and back again, but everything you have been through will be nothing compared to what you will go through if you do not keep looking for answers.

  “I am sorry, Eve. I am sorry for your pain, but you do have a chance to correct it. Revenge? No, because revenge never truly satisfies. Revenge is like a fancy mirage. It builds up within your sights as everything you could hope for; but when you reach it, it turns out to be nothing but handfuls of sand that sift slowly away, leaving you empty and even that much more crushed.”

  “I think I will take my chances with the so-called mirage.”

  Leah could feel her anger starting to rise within her, but she kept her voice steady.

  “Fine, do what you want. I can’t stop you, nor do I wish to. I have quite larger fish to fry, and I have no problem taking my team off all this. We already lost one of our best in this train wreck of guarding you. If you don’t want our help or the answers we have to give you, that’s fine! I am not going to lose anyone else for someone who has given up before she even began. I wish you the best, Eve, and I am sorry, but I am sorrier for those whom you wish to help. You have a chance to do just that, and you are turning your back upon all of them without even taking a chance.”

  With that, Leah turned and walked away, back toward where the others had disappeared. She was tired and worn out, hurt and angry all in one. She had lost Trinita to this mission, and for what? She was tired of watching friends and comrades fall for what seemed, so many times, as lost causes. She could feel a heat start burning in her chest. She knew what it was: anger. She wouldn’t let it in, because that would provide too much of a danger for the sickness to take over that would cast her into the eternal world of the Fallen. Oh, how she could let that happen so easily, though. What a waste.

  From the top of the building that stood opposite the café, Kadar watched Eve walk away from the rubble that he had caused. He still had a few Imps within his pocket that he could control at his bidding, and they had done well--actually, better than he could have expected. He had sent two Imps inside, well hidden, to tell him what was being discussed by the group meeting in the café. He watched as known members of the local Alliance gathered around Eve, and he started putting it all together: the Alliance; a Watcher; and one lonely, strange lady. He knew he couldn’t be wrong. Never in his wildest imagination did he ever really believe any of the Jerusalem Breed had survived; yet, here it was right in front of him--not only a survivor, but she wasn’t hard on the eyes, either.

  “I knew when she said she had heard a voice that it could mean only one thing, but never would I have imagined that it was you, Kadar. How is business nowadays--selling out to the highest bidder?”

  “Business is good, thank you. In fact, from the look of things, I believe it is just about to get better. So when did you discover her?”

  “Discover her, or discover what she is?”

  “Stop playing games, Leah. You know what I mean.”

  Kadar turned silently in the darkness and looked at the silhouette that was standing behind him. He didn’t have to see every detail to know that her crossbow was in hand. He wasn’t here tonight to prove anything, but maybe he could stir up some things.

  “You didn’t know, did you? That is the thing about following Jah. You follow blindly--or should I say by faith? You didn’t know--or did you? Did you know and believe you could make up for all your mistakes with Joan?”

  “Don’t you dare, Kadar! I will slit you from ear to ear right here and now and finish what I should have done years ago. You took her, but you’re not taking this one.”

  “Take her?” he asked, indicating he was talking about Eve by pointing in the direction of the café. “No, you are wrong. Your blind faith in following your Master took her! Your beliefs that these mortals can and will, for the most part, follow what is the morally correct path is what took her. You alone, Leah, should bear the blame for Joan’s death! I did not deceive her Watcher! I was not the mortal who chose to allow Hecate’s promise for immortality deceive me!”

  She could feel that burning in her chest again. She despised him. She couldn’t remember the last time they had actually stood in front of each other, but she felt nothing but anger and hatred, still. “You are the one who tipped Hecate to who her Watcher was! You, Kadar, are the one who played upon the Watcher’s weakness and betrayed him!”

  “You mean his mortality and his lack of knowledge?” Kadar scoffed. “You can blame your Master for that! Mortals will always self destruct! If given the chance, they will always stray into darkness if they believe they can survive the consequences; and they always convince themselves they will.

  “I offered you once before a chance to fight for what you can see and feel. Why do you keep following a losing purpose? Why do you allow everything you are able to do--your knowledge, your power, and your strength--to be wasted on someone else’s purpose and plan? You don’t have to lose her, but you can help her reach her full potential.”

  Leah looked up, not so sternly now.

  “Kadar, even in Joan’s death, she raised a call to all of the Jerusalem Breed who would follow to answer. It is my responsibility to make sure that Eve knows.”

  “Your responsibility or your pursuit of retribution?” Kadar countered. “Face it, Leah, from the start of my kind, you have never understood why we were allowed to live. You have constantly sought answers that never come, so you are always hopelessly reaching. You hope that just one more mission, one more rescue, will give you answers; but you still are not even sure what your existence is all about. Leah, you almost joined me after you watched your precious Arch Council stand by while Joan was sacrificed. Why not now?”

  She hated him for this. He knew how close she had gotten to Joan, and he also knew how long she had stood before the Arch Council in rage requesting--no, demanding--answers on why the young warrior, known now in history as Joan of Arc, had become yet another sacrificed pawn.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Kadar watched through the darkness, able to make out Leah’s facial features. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the lizard-like movements of the Imps that were his legion of shadows. His ears could pick up the sounds of feet shuffling on the sidewalk a couple of stories down. He loved these moments, the moments right before his victim realized they had been drawn into a trap.

  “Leah, give it up. The Alliance numbers globally are growing smaller, and here you barely are hanging on before the onslaught of the Fallen. If you would join with me, we could turn this around on them and make it better for humanity.”

  Suddenly, there was a sound of the clinking of something round and metallic bouncing toward her that seemed to come from out of the darkness. Then there was a whirring. Leah recognized the sound and immediately fell to her knees. Her crossbow was armed with one of Troy’s special bolts. She pulled the trigger as she covered her face.

  There was an explosion of bright blue light, and the area burned with an intense heat. The Imps, that had been silently sneaking up in the shadows, howled as burning golems that disintegrated as the light rushed over them. Kadar threw up his arm to protect his eyes and leaped from the building, allowing his wings to spread out as a canopy, keeping him from hurling like a boulder to the sidewalk below.

  He felt a pain in his shoulder. He swore loudly as he reached up with his right hand and pulled out the crossbow bolt from his left shoulder. He knew that if he had been a full Fallen, it would have been the end of him; but his humanity allowed only searing pain to be his punishment. He allowed himself to be drawn up
into the shadows as he disappeared in only the way an Assassin could.

  Leah picked herself up and stepped through the ashy remains of the Imps that had been taken out by the hand grenade.

  “I take it that was a new gadget that Troy put together?”

  “Yeah, and that thing worked better than he even thought it would! Did you see the range on that thing?”

  Ki’s enthusiasm was almost adolescent-like as he revealed himself about five feet in front of her at the corner of the rooftop. He had a grin on his face as he tossed back and forth another grenade from hand to hand as if tossing a peach back and forth before eating it.

  “I think he used similar technology on these like he used with the tips of your bolts.”

  “I don’t care what he used--I am just glad he gave you some. How did you know where to find me?”

  Ki slipped the grenade back into a pouch and kicked at a pile of ashes.

  “Give that credit to Troy, also. The police had finished everything up with Alfonso, and we all were about to head back to the Sanctum when that spiritual gift of his helped you out. He stopped me and whispered that he had seen several Imps heading up the side of the building from the alley, and they looked like they were on a hunt. I told him I would check it out, and you know the rest.”

  She took a deep breath and held it for a second as she looked over the edge and across the street. The café was taped off by crime scene tape, and Alfonso had requested Maria to stay behind to help out if the police needed anything further.

  “The picture is all starting to come together, Ki, and I don’t know what we can do to stop it. I think it is time I go before the Arch Council. They have to be able to answer some questions for me if I am going to continue to risk my team for this girl.”

  He placed a hand upon her shoulder as he stood behind her and let his eyes wander the same path hers did toward the café below.

  “Leah, you are my team leader, but more than that, my friend. I trust that you know what you are doing, but I do know that I have never seemed as lost as I do right now. I am used to fighting the Fallen, not hiding. I am used to understanding the battles, not trying to guess. Finally, I am used to having confidence in a cause, but this . . . well, I don’t even know what this is all about. How can I believe in something that I have not a clue what it is?”

  “Ki, I think this might be the prophecy starting all over again, but with a different generation. I think we may have come full circle, and this time I don’t know if we can keep it from being fulfilled.”

  She could feel Ki’s hand drop from her shoulder, but she chose not to turn around and look at him. It had never been a question as to whether the prophecies from The Revelations of Watchers would happen; it had only been a question of when.”

  “But how, who?”

  “Kadar . . . Arioch . . . Adremalech . . . an unknown clan leader? Who knows? I am just seeing too many old faces starting to come into play here, and too many things are starting to float around. There are many pieces that could come together in a number of ways.”

  “And Eve?”

  “She is a descendant of Rephaim, the one I rescued the night Babylon fell.”

  “So she is of the Jerusalem Breed?”

  “Yes.”

  “And that means . . . what?” A new voice spoke strongly, but shaken.

  Leah’s shoulder sank. The female’s voice jumped out of the darkness with conviction and possessed a sense of searching. Eve wasn’t having it shoved at her. No, she was now asking.

  Leah turned and faced the young lady standing at the top of the fire escape that had brought her up from the street below. Her face was set, but something was different. She had made a choice, and that choice was simple: she had searched too long for answers to simply walk away right now, even if what she had started hearing seemed too insane.

  *****

  The Sanctum was where the Alliance was based. It was their headquarters of sorts. It provided them a place to escape, to train, and to meet. At one time it was a shipping warehouse that had been abandoned; and as Leah’s team became established within the city, they had purchased it. Over time it had become a formidable fortress and really did have everything they needed.

  All the security that they had gone through as they drove through the chained gates and through the garage doors reminded Eve of one those gangster movies that she had seen during a night of sleepless nightmares.

  “Well, I will say if you all are just playing games here, you sure know how to do it in style,” she quipped.

  Eve stepped out of the car in which Leah had driven to the place. Ki had left on a motorcycle, headed in a different direction, saying he had a few things to check on before meeting them back at the Sanctum.

  “It is a long stretch from when we first started in the basement of the café, but at the same time, the bigger the facility usually means the bigger the threat from the Fallen.”

  “Oh, yeah, the vampires or demon beings.”

  Leah didn’t respond to Eve’s cynicism, but just led the way to a set of metal stairs that directed them to a walkway overhead and then into a different area of the warehouse altogether. As they walked, Eve looked attentively around her at the comings and goings of many other people, all races, heights, and personalities. This was a big operation!

  “So what all goes on here, Leah?”

  “I am sure you will find out soon enough, but right now you will just have to learn as you go. I am sorry if I have to keep some of the answers to a bare minimum, but you don’t know what you are asking to get yourself into, or should I say, discover. You are already a part of it all, no matter what you think; but there are so many others whose existence depends on secrecy here. I can’t risk their being exposed.”

  Leah led them into an area that looked less like a warehouse and more like an office area. There was no fancy business décor, but it was more of a technology-based shop with a large glass table that looked like it came out of a CIA briefing room. It had lights that lit up the face of it from underneath, and several chairs had been placed around it.

  “Please, Eve, have a seat. I have to get everyone else back in here, and then we have to make this quick. If you really want to know everything that is going on, then you will keep your mouth shut and just listen. I don’t have time to play ‘Twenty Questions’ anymore tonight.”

  “‘Twenty Questions’? As I see it, you need me as much as I need your answers, so I think . . .”

  Leah whirled around to face Eve, and her voice shot out like poison darts.

  “Listen, Lady! I am really getting tired of all of this. I am already at a point of telling my superiors that I am pulling this team away and that they can find someone else to keep your butt out of hot water or maybe just let you fall into bed with Arioch and his upcoming plans. If I even have a small idea of what is going to be taking place, it should be real interesting for you to be sure you hear it. I can send you away right now! I don’t need you. You are wrong. I didn’t need you before, and I surely don’t need you now! I can take care of the Fallen the way I have for ages: one at a time.”

  Eve slammed her mouth shut and plopped into a chair.

  “Don’t you leave this place,” Leah continued. “Don’t touch anything. Don’t do anything, except just sit!”

  Leah left with almost a stomp in her step. She had reached her limit tonight; and, even after all of this, she still had plans to go before the Arch Council. They already knew her too well to know that if answers didn’t come soon, she would be standing before them.

  “So I don’t understand why you don’t just let me know what is happening,” Eve muttered under her breath.

  As instructed, Eve stayed sitting down at the table and started taking a look at all the techie gadgets that filled the room. There were lighted grid maps on glass of the city, some kind of surveillance cameras and monitors, high-end computers, and things that she had only seen in sci-fi movies. Over to her left was a set of windows that looked out
over another area of the warehouse, which appeared to be some sort of a weapons range. She stood up and walked over to the window to see if she could get a better look.

  “That is some kind of playground for a blind man, huh?”

  Slightly surprised, Eve turned around to see a man whom she recognized as Troy standing in the doorway through which Leah had left. He had his cane in hand and a big smile upon his face.

  “I see you are all right from the incident tonight?” she asked him.

  “I am, thank you, and I take it that you were able to walk away, also?”

  “Yes,” she said brushing some of her hair back from her face.

  She wasn’t sure why all of a sudden she felt like a shy little girl. “I had some injuries, but I will be fine. I have always seemed to have a fast healing process--something that my foster parents used to say was freaky, but it made for interesting conversation.”

  Troy pondered that for just a moment, but never actually addressed it. “So, do you like my playground?”

  “That’s all yours?” Eve asked in amazement, looking back out the glass windows. “What do you do here?”

  In her mind she was wondering why a blind man needed an area such as what she was looking at.

  “You are probably wondering why a blind man would need an area like that.”

  She smiled, knowing she was busted. “You know that I was.”

  “I was a Weapons Specialist for the Army before my accident in Iraq. I thought that even though I had been spared death, my life was over. The Army trains you well to do their mission, but many times a soldier is not equipped for anything outside the military. When I joined the Alliance, I really didn’t know what I would be able to do. Ki hooked up some equipment, new technology, and assigned a few members to me, and bam . . . we had a weapons team! What you are looking at is where we test a lot of our new ideas.”

  Eve stood amazed--so much organization, and yet so far away from the face of reality. It was as if she had stepped into a fantasy novel.