Judas and the Vampires (20 page)

Mere words can’t describe it. Especially the feeling that came over me as I stopped and stared stupidly at this thing...the
Tree of Life!
It wasn’t just me who reacted like this. Amy wore an incredulous expression on her face while her knees trembled to the point they actually knocked together.

As for Jeremy, he looked on reverently. He had become quite familiar with the ‘tree’ during much of the past year. His eyes bore a glint of impishness. It was as if he had a secret he could hardly stand not sharing, but waited for the right moment to spring it on us.

He looked down at Alistair, who was sitting up. We had laid him gently upon the ground before us a few moments earlier, but I hadn’t noticed that he was awake until just then. Alistair’s expression was one of astonishment, even though he still winced from the wound in his abdomen.

“William, help me assist your father over to the stream,” said Jeremy.

“What stream?”

I had been so enthralled with the tree’s impressive height and breadth that I hadn’t noticed the bubbling water flowing near its base. Incredulous that I missed even hearing the water’s gurgle, I was still shaking my head about it as we lifted my son to his feet. He staggered gingerly toward the stream, though eagerly, as if he were a man dying of thirst.

I felt a powerful pull from the tree’s life force as we followed him. I could tell it called to each of us, perhaps to our spirits or souls. All I knew for sure was that I felt completely unable to resist, wanting to dive into the rippling clear blue water and cross over to the crystal’s enormous base. Unlike the frigid pool from earlier, this water carried humid warmth. Like a hot Turkish bath, tiny clouds of steam wafted off the stream’s surface and gently rose into the air.

Jeremy removed his rifle, and the satchel he carried over his shoulder. He then stepped into the stream, seemingly unafraid of what might be lurking in the water.

“Alistair, come here!” he said, his arms opened wide like a new messiah. There was that impish look again. “William and Amy, please join us in the water. Could one of you open his shirt, so I can easily get to his wounds?”

Another ancient memory flashed before my eyes. This one was of my old friend John ben Zechariah—Jesus’ closest family confidante other than his mother—and how he once motioned to me in the same manner while standing in the shallows of the Jordan River. That event transformed a mere spectator of the Gospel ministries into an eager participant. It played no small part in my fanaticism that would later lead to disenchantment when neither John nor Jesus had any interest in overthrowing King Herod and his Roman pals.

Amy gently opened Alistair’s shirt, while my son offered little help or resistance to her. It was the same deal when we guided him into the water, both of us on either side as we steadied his steps and kept him from falling into the water. Soothing warmth moved into my feet and legs, undeterred by my clothing. Amy’s nervous smile told me that it was a similar sensation for her. I couldn’t tell what it was like for my son, since he remained silent. But he wasn’t grimacing anymore.

“May the Lord have mercy on you, Alistair,” said Jeremy, which drew a disdainful look from his sister.

This surely was a side of Jeremy that she’d never seen before. How interesting.... This could lead to some serious fun later on, when the devout agnostic went toe to toe with the nubile religious convert. Save me a front row seat and some buttered popcorn for that one.

Jeremy didn’t seem to notice her reaction, still wearing the bemused expression from earlier. He cupped his left hand and scooped up some water, using his right hand to pull my son close to him. When less than a foot separated the two, Jeremy dripped part of the water on top of Alistair’s head, and then he rubbed the rest into the puncture wounds in his abdomen.

What happened next should not have surprised me. If it had been me and my body, it wouldn’t have. But to see my son’s wounds close and lighten in color, and then become a perfect flesh-tone match with the surrounding skin was astounding. The very first time I’ve seen this transformation happen to someone other than me!

“What in the hell?!”
Amy’s voice was barely audible.

She shook her head slowly. I knew right then that her seeing this miracle made an even deeper impression than watching me heal from severe burns less than twelve hours earlier. Surely, it was because of her brother’s involvement. It’s a whole different ballgame seeing someone you’ve known all your life—especially a sibling—do something miraculous as opposed to a relative stranger.

“Pops, Amy...who’s this guy?” Alistair gave Jeremy a wary glance after looking around, completely disoriented. “Where in the hell...wait, is that what I think it is?”

He suddenly gasped, while his eyes followed the height of the fabulous crystal formation in front of us. Apparently the expression on his face earlier had nothing to do with his conscious awareness. He started to move toward the ‘tree’, but slipped and fell into the water. Jeremy and I quickly pulled him back to his feet. The toxins might not have been thoroughly eradicated from his system yet. At least his mind seemed fully alert.

Meanwhile, Jeremy’s playful confidence had faded slightly, as a trace of confusion slipped into his expression. Amy beat me to the punch in trying to explain why the older man in the group had addressed me as his parent.

“We have a lot to discuss, Jeremy,” she said. “I’m sure you’ll end up with as many questions about these two as I have about you and what has changed—
Oh, my God!”

She suddenly reached up and ran her hand against his cheek. She next looked over at Alistair. At first, I was just as lost as Jeremy looked right then...until I noticed something odd about my son. He looked rested...
really
rested. Like he had finally gotten enough sleep to erase the dark circles under his eyes. But then I noticed that the lines and wrinkles around his eyes and along his forehead were a little less noticeable than they’d been just minutes before.

“I knew you looked different when I first saw you earlier!” Amy exclaimed, and her excitement continued to rise. “Somehow, you’re
younger!
Ali just got younger—
Look
, William sees it
too!!”

“Is it something in the water?” I deadpanned.

Yes, what just happened surprised me. But after centuries of surprise, it doesn’t last long anymore. Five to ten minutes, tops, and I’m normally on my way back to my preferred mischievous persona.

The look that Amy cut me so reminded me of Beatrice long ago, right after Alistair was born. It’s never a great idea to be a smartass with a Celtic woman—especially a direct descendant of the mercurial Pixies. “If it’s not a time for jokes, don’t make one,” she’d say. “You look like a boorish jackass, William!”

From the look Amy gave me just then, apparently it’s the same deal for a temperamental Native American descendant.

“He’s close to the truth about this place,” Jeremy advised. “The healing comes from the crystal—Dad’s ‘Tree of Life’ that he spent the last twenty years of his life looking for. Then it’s carried by the water, since the crystal’s base touches the stream.”

It made logical sense to me.

“All I know is I feel different...actually
better
than I did before I got hurt,” said Alistair, before crossing to the other side of the stream. His gaze again traversed the full length of the crystal tree and beyond. “In fact, I haven’t felt quite this good since I was his age.”

He pointed at Jeremy, adding a warm chuckle.

“I assume you are the illustrious anthropologist, Dr. Jeremy Golden Eagle,” continued my son. “How did you end up down here?”

“Similar to you three, I was running for my life after Ethan was murdered. Zoran and his people hid me from Petr Stanislav and the leader of his army, Viktor Kaslow,” he said. “I knew the Garden of Eden had to be inside one of the mountains surrounding the village, but I couldn’t find it until Zoran anointed me and made me worthy of the discovery. When Stanislav’s men overran Zoran’s village last year, Zoran and his high priests brought me to the mouth of a small cave and told me how to find this place. Here I am.”

“I am sorry about what happened to Dr. Langford,” said Alistair. “I met him once at a Middle East conference nearly six years ago.”

“I believe he mentioned you to me around that time,” Jeremy told him, his eyes misting. “And I’ve read a few of your essays myself, Dr. Barrow.”

While it was marvelous to see my boy and Amy’s celebrated brother forge a bond, this was hardly the place to share academic accolades. For the past few minutes, I had felt uneasy, as if we were running out of time again. Out of time for what, this time? I wasn’t sure. But as I mentioned before, my deep gut feelings are usually quite accurate.

“Guys and Amy, we need to get moving.”

All three looked at me as if I’d just sprouted horns and a tail. I joined Alistair beneath the magnificent crystal tree—this Tree of Life that seemed to send waves of goodwill and sweet peace through me, enough to threaten the effectiveness of my survival instincts. I determined right then to ignore anyone’s resistance as well as stick with what my mind knew was best for us. We needed to leave right away!

“Jeremy, what’s the quickest route to get back to the surface?”

He looked totally confused for a moment, like my question itself didn’t make any sense—at least not in this place. But after I repeated my query with a little mustard on it, he gave me an answer.

“It’s behind the taller waterfall on the right side of the crystal,” he said. “There’s a path that encircles the cave and winds all the way up like a corkscrew until you reach the top of the waterfall. A hidden doorway hides a short tunnel that leads back to the surface, exiting out through the southwest side of the mountain.”

“I don’t see why we have to rush out of here, Pops.”  Alistair stroked his beard thoughtfully while touching the amazing crystal surface of the tree. Lightning- like plasma traveled through the tree and touched his fingers. Although no harm came to him, touching the energy surge seemed to tickle his fingertips, he later told me. “We can stay here for a day or two, I’d say!”

“But we’ll be sitting ducks if we do that. The longer we stay the less chance we’ll have of gaining the upper hand on Stanislav.”

I tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, but that feeling of dread was getting stronger by the moment.

“I’m not ready to go—”

“Damn it son, we
need
to go now!”

Definitely a moment of karma, since the exchange and Alistair’s whine were the sort of things I missed by exiting his life when he was just a pup. What an inopportune time to be dealing with such shit now!

“I think William’s right, Ali,” said Amy, and her tone sounded uneasy. “We should leave...as soon as possible we need to be on our way!”

Woman’s intuition plus my own apprehension should have made this an easy triumph. But it didn’t.

Alistair shook his head defiantly, like he truly was a young teenager again. He looked over at Jeremy for support, who shrugged his shoulders.

“If you think you’re staying here, Jeremy, you’ve got another thing coming!” I could tell from Amy’s worried tone that she thought this was exactly what he intended to do. “Well?? Are you both going to make this difficult and waste precious time, or can we
please
get going?!”

“I’m not going anywhere,” said Jeremy, quietly and with even more defiance than my boy had responded with. “I’m
never
leaving this place!”

“What?!
You
must
leave since it means being
safe!!”

Amy was on the verge of uncontrolled hysterics. As much as my gut told me trouble was right around the corner, her instincts were more on top of the situation than mine were.

“Let me settle this right now!” I said, taking charge while eyeing my son solemnly. My thinking at that moment was if I could get Alistair on board, then the Golden Eagle boy would be an easier target to manage. “We’re leav—”

The rest of what I had to say was drowned out by a sudden, huge explosion. At least, that’s what it sounded like at first to my mind. I wasn’t prepared to watch solid rock dissolve before my eyes. One of the cave walls dissolved into thin air as a pair of bluish FGR beams appeared to our left. All at once, the real sunlight I had so eagerly longed for flooded this world, where it hadn’t reached for many thousands of years.

And just like that, a world ruled by bioluminescence was now threatened by an omen of wanton destruction....

The end, so it seemed, had come for the Garden of Eden.

Chapter 19

In under a minute, nearly one hundred Russian mercenaries poured into the open wound in the mountain where the Garden of Eden laid hidden for many more millennia than I’ve been in existence. Behind them were several Jeeps equipped with rocket launchers and one oversized loader. These were in addition to the trucks carrying the immense FGRs, actively employed right then.

More and more of the mountainside disappeared until enough material had been displaced to allow the vehicles unhindered access into the cave. Layers of precious gems briefly appeared in the disintegrating cave walls and then vanished, leaving only a tiny memory of their existence with anyone fortunate enough to witness this disturbing phenomenon. Namely our little group. The Russians scarcely noticed any of this. Nor were they concerned with the unique ecosystem they were carelessly destroying under their oversized tractor wheels.