Between HeVan and Hell (5 page)

“
Oh, wow,” said Heidi.
“Have aliens from other worlds really visited Earth?”

“Yes,” said Addie, “they were here
around ten thousand years ago; give or take a thousand years. They
crash-landed here and joined our population at that time. They left
their descendants special gifts, like being able to find things or
being able to help plants grow.

“And they left those descendants
something else too, a special birthmark,” she added. Saying this,
she once again pushed aside her hair, revealing her own mark.
Suzanna then pushed aside her shirt to show her own Mark of the
Nephilim on her wrist.

Then Addie spoke up again. She could
see the truth beginning to dawn in Heidi’s eyes.

“It took a really long time for the
people from their home world to finally get their signal, and come
here to find out what had happened. In those ten thousand years on
their home world, very few female children were born. And now their
population has dropped to a level of barely thirty-five thousand
women and just over ten million men.

So they came here looking for their
lost Queen. She would have the power to restore the balance between
male and female children on the planet. She’d been badly injured in
the crash and for that reason and because they were so far from
home, she was put into stasis and was held there all this time,
until I woke her up. My own powers led me to her at just the right
time and place.”

There were tears in her eyes as she
continued.

“When that happened, since
there wasn’t anyone else there, she started transferring her powers
to me. Once started, she couldn’t reverse the process or didn’t
know how, she had to continue. She might have lived on but she
chose to let herself die. She had done her duty and didn’t want to
be ten thousand years out of step with her people and without
her
Ankida
or her
children.”

Addie stopped speaking for a moment
and the others around the table remained quiet while she pulled
herself together. The death of Tamiel had really affected her.
After a few moments she went on with the story.

“Now I’m the Queen of a world I’ve
never seen and married to three alien men. And it looks like my
sister is going to be marrying three men, too. Unfortunately, it
looks like you’ll only get two,” she said with a crooked smile in
an attempt to lighten the mood.

Heidi looked at them all as if they’d
all grown an extra head. “You mean…”

“Look at it this way, Heidi. There is
no way your lousy ex-husband will ever find you in space. Arjun’s
people are building a Space Station at the edge of our solar
system. They’re also building a jump gate, kind of like what you
see in a sci-fi movie. So travel between HeVan and Earth will be
easier and will take less than a month.

“Miranda says that Gaius and Gael are
your perfect matches. Right now, they are up in that station
growing all the food and making a garden in space for all our
people. So you have something in common already. We, all of us, are
Nephilim from the planet HeVan.” Addie paused to see how Heidi was
taking it all in. She looked stunned but her eyes weren’t glazed
over.

“Um Guy´-us and Gay-el´?” asked
Heidi.

They’re both taking this
extremely well
, Addie thought,
even better than I did
.

“Yes, Kylan has their
pictures if you want to see what they look like. You have a
decision to make, Heidi. We’re going to be sending the Nephilim
from Earth who’re willing to go, back to HeVan to be
Joined
. HeVan is a
matriarchal planet so all the women coming over will be treated
really well. And, of course, since I’m the Queen, I’ll make sure of
it. It’s also a mainly agrarian planet, lots of farming
communities,” said Addie.

She turned to Arjun then. “Arjun, at
one point in Earth’s history, we gave away large plots of land in
order to encourage settlers to farm it and to immigrate. Can we do
something like that on HeVan?” she asked.

“Much of our world is now uninhabited,
Aditya, though it is owned by the ruling family for that region.
Each of the Nephilim of Earth can trace their lineage through the
colors in their birthmark. Almost all of the men on Queen Tamiel’s
ship came from the HeVanthian region. So it is in your power to
give them lands.

I’m sure others would be happy to do
the same if it meant welcoming more women to live nearby,” he
said.

Addie then turned back to Heidi who
had followed along when Arjun was speaking.

“
Your decision is whether
to stay here on Earth. You can work the land we’re going to buy
here, or you can go up to the Station and work the land in the
arboretum. It’s great there. I didn’t even realize I was in space
while I was there. Then, option three is to come all the way to
HeVan with us when we leave. Whichever you choose, I think you
should give Gaius and Gael a chance to win you over,” Addie
finished.

Then she turned to Jalen. “Jalen,
Suzanna will drive you into town when you’re ready to
go.”

Moving on to Suzanna, she added,
“Suzanna, I want you to go and get your mother and bring her to
stay with my Granny Mac. Where is she, exactly?”

“Not far. Chicago is once again my
home base,” Suzanna answered. “She’s in the northern
suburbs.”

“That will work fine, then. Just bring
her back here to the house, and we’ll go to Granny’s together
later. Heidi, you can think about what you want to do. I’m going to
be in the home office looking online for real estate. I’d like your
input on that, Heidi. Because I don’t know what would be right for
farming.”

With that, Addie got up from the table
and left the room, with Kylan and Rune following behind.

Arjun stayed at the table.
“Jalen, while you are buying this ring for Grace that Addie speaks
of, would you also take some of our gems and have a ring made for
Aditya? And matching ones for us? We have decided that we need to
marry our Assat, I mean wife, the way they do here on Earth. She is
giving up everything for our people and us. This is her culture; it
is important to her. If the jeweler is greatly skilled, I would
also like some other things made. Hoping we would at last meet
our
Join
, we
brought our family treasures with us. We knew if we left them,
Malpha would find a way to take them.”

“Arjun, I would be happy to
complete this errand for you. If Grace wishes, we will also
Join
with her in the way
of her people,” said Jalen.

“We should start using the
Earth word. Their culture puts much emphasis on the Wedding
Ceremony of Marriage. And yet they discard their vows so easily.
Our own
Joining
is private and without ceremony, and yet divorce is not known
to us. Why do you think that is?” Arjun asked.

Before Jalen could answer, Heidi
interrupted. She’d stayed at the table because she felt safe with
Boris and Bella at her sides. And she knew the men here would never
hurt her. She’d known that not all men were like her brute of an
ex-husband and these men in particular were very nice to
women.

It was
strange
, she thought
, that so many of the people who treated her well were aliens
from another planet or like her and descended from them.

“Arjun,” said Heidi, “I think what
you’re doing is wonderful. I know that I would want to be married
in front of those closest to me. I think it means more when the
people who are important to you witness your promises to each
other. I don’t know why other people get divorced, but if I’d
stayed in my marriage, I’d probably be dead by now.”

“Heidi, you are a brave and
resourceful woman. I look forward to the day when the shy bud
you’ve become blossoms into the strong self-assured woman you have
it in you to be,” said Jalen. Then he stood up and excused himself
to go and pack his things and wake up his brothers.

Arjun looked over at Heidi.
“Heidi, do you have any questions about the Nephilim or your
male
Joins
?”
asked Arjun.

“Addie said it takes about a week to
get to your Space Station?” she asked.

At Arjun’s nod, she continued, “I
think I’d like to go there to meet Gaius and Gael. Will I be able
to take some time to get to know them before we get married? I’m
not sure I’m ready for that.”

“I won’t ever lie to you,
Heidi. The trip from our home world took almost two hundred years.
I’m not sure of their ages, but they’ve been without a woman for at
least two hundred years. Do you understand what I mean?” he asked.
At her blush and nod, he went on, “When they first meet you, they
will recognize you for their perfect match. They can tell because
their
Joining
wings will begin to emerge.”

“You have wings?” she asked wide-eyed,
reaching out to rest her hands on the dogs’ heads on her
lap.

“Our backs begin to itch as the wings
approach the surface. The wings are in three parts, and from what
I’ve seen of the wildlife of this planet the best way to describe
them is a cross between the wings of a bird and that of a
butterfly. They are thin and filmy, the feathers so small that they
can’t be discerned as such until you get close. Each wing-set comes
in colors and each color represents a bloodline or lineage. The top
wings represent our parents’ lineages; the middle represents our
grandparents; and the lower wings, our great-grandparents and
another three generations,” he said

“If they’re thin like butterfly wings,
how do they hold you up?” Suzanna interrupted because she always
liked to know things.

“I’m not sure, they are
also quite strong, underneath the feathers is not skin precisely,
not like what you have on your body but a strong clear film-like
skin over fine hollow bones. The gravity of HeVan is very slightly
lighter than here so we may have more trouble gaining flight in
your atmosphere. For Addie, we flew in the Arboretum,” he said,
“I’m sorry, I can’t explain it better than that, you will have your
own
Ankida’s
wings to examine. As after the flight they are sloughed off,
and the custom is to hang them in your home.”

“Thank you for explaining,” said
Suzanna. “Go on, I’m as interested as Heidi to find out the rest.
Just let me grab another cup of coffee. Would either of you like
another cup?” At Heidi’s nod, she offered to bring in the pot. She
walked into the kitchen and came back right away with the coffee
pot.

“Go ahead, Arjun, what happens next?”
she said as she took a sip and Heidi added cream and
sugar.

“Once the wings emerge and
dry, we have an uncontrollable urge to fly for our female. Rather
like a peacock flashing his feathers, you could say,” he said with
a smile. “When the wings emerge, they are coated in a chemical that
increases arousal in the female
Join
, the beating of our wings
pushes it into the air and the movement of our flight swirls it
around her. If she were not our true
Join
, the chemical would not affect
her.

“If you are around when
Gaius and Gael’s wings emerge, you will be
Joined
with them. If you wish to
have a formal wedding ceremony, I’m sure they will agree. They’ve
been told of your existence and would lay down their lives for your
happiness. You’ve already brought them more joy than they ever
thought to have just by being. Though Jalen mentioned that it would
take some days for his and his brothers’ wings to emerge, Gaius and
Gael have already seen your image. I would not be surprised if
their wings burst forth at first sight of you. That is what
happened with us and Addie.”

“I’m glad you didn’t lie to me. I’ll
have to think about everything that you said. Do you think Addie
would let me take Boris and Bella with me?” asked Heidi.

“Why don’t you go and ask her,” he
said with another smile.

She got up to leave, the dogs
following, and he turned to Suzanna.

“Suzanna, after you bring your mother
here, I’ll speak with Rapha about treating her. Addie is familiar
with him and his brothers so I think they would be the best choice
to have watching over her pregnancy. We don’t have this disease you
spoke of last evening on HeVan. I’m not a medical, but if there is
a possibility we can do something for her, we won’t hesitate to
help her. I’d also like you to help set up these satellite phones
you spoke to Jalen about.”

“I’d be happy to. If you purchase
satellite cell phones, we’ll set up a link on the actual satellite
so it appears you’re speaking to another satellite cell phone. I’ll
just need their individual codes. I’m sure Jett will know what to
do at this end.

“Do you think I’ll ever find the men
who are supposed to be mine? I’ve been dreaming about two men ever
since I first met Addie,” said Suzanna.

“I apologize,” said Arjun. “We meant
to tell you last night. Yes, Suzanna, Miranda has matched you also.
Addie meant to tell you this morning—I guess it slipped her mind.
I’ll tease Addie later about forgetting,” he joked.