Son of Eden, a Paranormal Romance (29 page)

“Hey, you missed a spot,” Emily called out from her lounge chair trying to distract herself from thoughts she knew would surely lead to self pity.

Alexander and Xavier both turned to face her, confused at the declaration.

“Where?” Xavier examined the windows that now had multiple sheets of metal plating across them.

“Right there,” Emily said pointing toward the window to their left. She was having a hard time sounding serious.

“Where? I see nothing out of place,” Alexander replied.

“Right there, where that one metal sheet is slightly bent. There is a crack big enough for a caterpillar to get through and we wouldn’t want that.” Emily released her bubbly laughter.

“Ha ha, you’re so funny.” Xavier turned around and continued screwing the metal sheet into the siding.

Alexander gave her a warm smile. He knew she was trying her best to stay positive and he loved her for it.

“I do have to agree with her though; your work is quite sloppy Xavier.” Alexander winked at Emily.

Xavier didn’t respond verbally. Instead he lunged at Alexander trying to catch him off guard. It didn’t work. In one fluid motion, Alexander sidestepped and used his arms to guide Xavier past him.

“Ha, Toro!” Alexander shouted, “Come now, little bull, you must be able to do better than that.”

Xavier gave a menacing laugh. “Oh, you know I can Brother. The question is, are you ready for it?” With that Xavier launched himself through the air at Alexander, coming down hard around his shoulders. An all out wrestling match had officially begun and Emily scooted her chair back to allow them more room on the deck to maneuver.

“At it again, huh?” James walked out the back door and over to a chair by Emily.

“Yeah, they seem to be doing this more frequently,” she giggled.

After watching the two Guardians wrestle the first few times, Emily realized that it was their way of relieving anxiety and tension. The matches only lasted a few minutes and always ended with Alexander on top of Xavier in some sort of submission hold. She had loved to see Alexander in action when she knew that he was in no real danger, it was fun and unexpectedly gripping.

As though it was some sporting event on television, Emily and her father made bets with one another. Of course, they always wagered on their own Guardian to win, but deep down they both knew it would always be Alexander.

Xavier struggled to regain his footing as Alexander threw him to the ground and placed a knee into his back. It seemed as though Alexander had the match wrapped up, but then his face went as still as stone.

Xavier sensed the moment of weakness and in a flash had reversed his body and was now slamming Alexander’s shoulder blades to the ground. But Alexander gave no resistance whatsoever.

“Oh, don’t pull that trick on me, I’m the master of the vision trick,” Xavier said. But when Alexander did not respond he knew it was no trick.

“Alexander!” Emily jumped from her chair to be at his side.

Xavier held his arm out to stop her. “Let him be, he’s fine. He’ll snap out of it in a sec.”

As if on cue Alexander blinked his eyes, signaling his return to reality. Before anyone had a chance to react he was on his feet, looking completely normal again except for the serious expression that now tensed every feature on his face.

“They’re coming,” he said in a low tone.

“Now?” Emily glanced around her, suddenly feeling extremely vulnerable.

“No, with the rain. They will get here when the rain first starts falling,” Alexander responded, still lost in the memory of his vision.

With that comment they all glanced at the sky to determine the forecast, but there was not a cloud in sight. Relief washed over Emily. At least it wasn’t going to be in the next few hours.

“Weren’t you given a specific day?” Xavier was clearly frustrated.

“No, I’m afraid it is as Aldara warned. Because I have intertwined my fate with Emily, my visions are no longer as precise as they could be. But the time felt close, like tomorrow night,” Alexander explained.

James darted inside, giving no explanation for his actions, which left everyone wondering what he was up to. Within a minute he emerged onto the deck with a laptop in his hands, already open and on.

Sitting down in the chair beside his daughter, his fingers flew over the keys. He waited only a moment as everyone kept their eyes on him.

“It says here that the forecast for tomorrow has a 30 percent chance of light showers.” He glanced up to meet everyone’s stares. “That’s not a very high chance of rain, but the day after that has a seventy percent chance of precipitation. Maybe it’s not tomorrow, but the day after.”

“No, its tomorrow I am sure of it. I can feel it,” Alexander replied as he shook his head. “And it’s not going to be light showers, it is going to pour, trust me. But it won’t start until after sunset.”

“Did you get a clear picture of the number?” Xavier questioned.

“Not as clear as I would have liked, but it looked like our enemy will bring fifty or sixty,” Alexander replied calmly, but there was obvious concern on his face.

“Isn’t that good? That’s the lower number we were hoping for, right?” Emily was confused.

The expression on Alexander’s face was not what she had expected.

“The number is low, but it’s just strange.” Alexander closed his eyes again in an effort to recall the vision more clearly.

“What’s strange?” Xavier asked.

Alexander opened his eyes. “I just imagined the attack would come in waves, as in ten to fifteen at a time. I did not believe the Opposition could muster enough criminals to work together as one solid team. We all know those type of humans with susceptible minds don’t work well with others. I figured the Opposition would influence small bands of men and gangs that would attack sporadically.”

“So they’re coming as one force.” Xavier revealed that it wasn’t what he expected either.

“It is a well-coordinated attack, almost like a small army. There is even a leader that is controlling everything. But I couldn’t get a clear picture of him. He was fuzzy, like he was out of focus.” Alexander furrowed his brows in contemplation, trying to make sense of the unusual circumstances.

Emily had a hard time controlling the sense of panic that was rising within her. She felt sick to her stomach.

Alexander looked up again. “We only have a short amount of time. I need to get back to speak with the Governing Five. Cyrenna must be aware of what I have just seen. I am sure she has told the others about my vision, but we need to discuss how we can coordinate our defense. The problem will be that our fighters will continually change, since some may need to leave for their own Travelers. This will be tricky. The best thing to do is to have Athos call and inform as many Guardians as possible. He can let them know how things are to happen and then hope that enough of them can be ready.”

“Yeah, that’s the best we can do at this point,” Xavier agreed.

“I can help Xavier finish the windows while you’re gone. It will only take another hour or so,” Emily’s father offered.

“I won’t be gone long. Thankfully these windows are about the last preparations needed. Xavier, as soon as I return you will need to go place the bundles of staves in the spots we designated, understood?” Alexander commanded.

As though a switch were flipped, Alexander had gone from his fun, playful side into his driven and firm war general.

Emily figured that hard part of his personality was what she would see until it was all over. That was, of course, if they both survived.

Two hours later Emily began to pace alongside the piano as anxiety grew inside her. Alexander had never been gone this long and she assumed that he would be bringing bad news. Her father helped Xavier finish covering the windows and decided to start dinner. Even though it was a little early for a typical evening meal, it was a good distraction for her father and Xavier.

After a few more minutes of Emily’s pacing, she heard her father excuse himself from the kitchen and walk the few steps down into the sunken living room.

“Hey, sweetie, come sit with me a minute.” He motioned for her to join him on the leather couch.

Emily looked up to meet her father’s loving smile. She hadn’t noticed he was in the room until he spoke up for the second time. Her thoughts had been the only things she could hear, they were consuming her.

Emily cuddled in close to her father, tucking her legs beneath her and leaning into him, just as she had done as a small child. They had a close relationship all her life but had grown even closer after her mother’s death. He placed his arm around her to offer the warmth and security only a father could give.

“I know you’re worried but we all need you to believe that everything is going to work out,” he said soothingly.

“How can you say you know everything’s going to be fine? None of us have a crystal ball; we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Emily argued.

“Knowing everything’s going to be fine doesn’t come from knowing what the future holds. It comes from believing that all things have a purpose—that all things happen for a reason. No matter the outcome, good or bad, that is the way it was intended. There is peace in knowing that much.”

“I don’t know how you’ve developed that perspective Dad, because I can’t seem to accept some things, no matter how hard I try.” Emily fought the sting she felt in her eyes.

“You mean like your mother.”

“Yeah like Mom,” Emily whispered.

“I want to share something with you that I don’t think I have before.” He paused briefly to take a deep breath and then continued. “A few days before your mother passed away I was reading to her from one of her favorite books,
Gone with the Wind
. Your mother lay listening quietly and then faintly laughed at something. I asked her what she thought was funny. She responded by saying, ‘Poor Scarlet. She’s so caught up in the toil and trouble of life that she misses all the joy that’s in the journey.’ Your mother’s words struck my core. Here was my wife, dying from a brutal fight with cancer and she was in no way bitter or caught up in her plight or the pitiful cards she was dealt.”

“You know your mother always had health issues her entire life, and yet you never heard her complain. We tried for years and years to have a baby, and in the end, after all the doctors and treatments, we were told it was hopeless. I remember how hard it was for me to accept, how crushed I felt. I was denied something I knew I deserved. But your mother…your mother never grew bitter or sad. She simply said that she would accept whatever was given her and that everything would be all right, and I knew she wanted children even more than I did.

“She believed that we are all given certain trials in life, no one is exempt. If she just endured hers with a thankful and loving heart, she would be rewarded eventually and all of her losses would be made up for in the end. So instead of lying there on her death bed complaining about all the pain she went through, and all the things she knew she was going to miss, she talked about how wonderful life was, and how everything was so perfect.”

Emily’s father paused to wipe the tear from his eye and regain his composure.

“I asked her how she could say that life was perfect. How was perfection possible when she had endured such hard things? Her answer was simple. She told me that her life was perfect because she knew that everything that had happened to her, everything she had gone through, served a purpose and that made it perfect. I learned a lot from your mother. She was wise beyond her years and carried an inner peace that could not be replicated or devoured by dismal circumstances.

“The peace she had came from believing that everything had purpose, even the bad things. Even though she didn’t know why some things happened and others did not, it didn’t matter. What mattered to her was that they happened. She knew how to recognize the joy in her journey, because it all meant something.”

Emily let the tears freely stream down her face. She was blessed to have such an amazing mother and father. Many people were not so fortunate. The idea of being gracious and accepting things as they happened suddenly seemed simpler, more rewarding.

Emily’s father squeezed her tightly. “So no, I can’t say that nothing bad is going to happen. But, I can say that what is supposed to happen, will happen, and that makes everything okay. I gained that perspective from your mother.” He kissed her on the cheek and then held her for a few moments in silence.

After Emily dried her tears, she raised her head to look into her father’s eyes. “Thanks, Daddy. You always seem to know what to say. I’m so glad to have you here with me.”

“I’m glad I’m here, too. I haven’t taken a vacation this long in years,” he said enthusiastically.

“I’m not sure if this qualifies as a vacation.” Emily groaned.

“Why not? I’m not working; I’ve spent the last two weeks with my daughter in our cozy vacation home on the lake. We’re keeping the best company we could ask for. And you can’t argue about the cooking, you only eat food like we’ve had every day when you’re on vacation!”

A genuine smile spread across Emily’s face. The two men in her life were the ultimate idealists, and if she didn’t love them so much she might find the trait annoying.

“That’s better, keep a smile on your face and enjoy the time away. I guarantee you’d rather deal with a fierce mob than all the catch-up work you’re going to have at school when we get back.”

Emily’s smile gave way to a small giggle. Little did her father know, any time she wasn’t with him or Alexander, she had distracted herself with homework. But, that distraction wasn’t currently available. Right now, all she could do was sit and wait.

Tribulation

The first crack of thunder rumbled above and sent chills down Emily’s spine.

It was still light out and there hadn’t even been a sprinkle all day, but the familiar smell of rain was now in the air and Emily knew that within the hour it would be nightfall and the rain would come.

Looking out over the deck was a sight that, just about a month ago, Emily would have never believed. Spread across the back lawn of her home in Cooperstown, was close to fifty athletically-built men and women that all had one similar trait: green eyes. They all stood silently looking at the two of them.