The Belial Origins (29 page)

             
CHAPTER 92             

L
aney and Jen stood next to the Range Rovers; Jordan and Mike, as well as the rest of the Chandler operatives and SIA agents, had created a perimeter around the SUVs. Laney did not feel reassured. She felt exposed.

“Are you ready?” Mustafa asked as he walked up.

Laney gave him an abrupt nod. “You’re sure this is the best way?”

“It’s safer if we all leave together—safer for them, safer for you.”

Laney watched Matt and Ralph carry the stretcher with Henry over to the van. Jake’s stretcher had already been loaded up. Victoria stood perched in the doorway behind, Patrick at her side.

“You know they’ll be watching us as we head to the airport,” Laney said. “It’s our most vulnerable time.”

“We know. We have prepared for that.”

“Mustafa?” she said.

He looked over at her.

“These people are the most important people in the world to me. Promise me you will keep them safe.”

Mustafa’s face was solemn. “On my life, I will let nothing happen to them.”

She nodded and looked away.

Cleo slunk from around the back of the house and made her way over to Laney. “You ready, girl?”

Cleo licked the side of her face.

Laney laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Jen nudged Laney’s shoulder. “We need to get going.”

Laney let out a breath. The fate of the world hinged on them being able to get out of the country without getting killed. And that all hinged on this one car ride.

“Okay. Let’s head out.”

CHAPTER 93

E
lisabeta drummed her hands on the table in the plane cabin. She had taken them in the wrong direction when they’d left India. It had been a miscalculation, but they would make up the time on the way back.

Her spies had told her about the gunfight with Cain before Laney’s group had reached the safe house. She knew that Henry and Jake were out of this fight for now. She smiled.
Thank you, dear Jorgen, for your assistance.

The smile dimmed a little when she thought about the reports of the seer going missing. But no matter—she no longer needed him. And if she ever did need him at some point in the future, why, she’d just run him to ground.

Now I just have the little ring bearer to deal with.
And Laney was probably so traumatized by her losses that she was immobile.

Elisabeta rubbed her hands as she watched the live feed from the airport. She had debated whether or not to finish the ring bearer as she and her friends left their little safe enclosure. But she had decided against it. She wanted to wait until they reached the airport. She wanted them to feel that taste of hope that they had made it—and then snatch it away.

She smiled.
So stupid. So trusting.
It was like fighting with babies.

They should be at the airfield any minute now. Elisabeta had left behind Kendrick—one of her nephilim—and a few mercenaries she had hired for just this occasion. It wasn’t a large group, but it didn’t need to be. They had only one goal: take out McPhearson.

Elisabeta picked up her phone and dialed. She spoke quickly. “No one moves in until the target has been located. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ve made sure the men are aware,” Kendrick said.

Elisabeta put the phone on speaker, then settled back in her seat, a glass of wine in her hand, ready for the show. They were a hundred miles outside of India, but she wasn’t worried. Once the ring bearer and her group were taken care of, they could take their time tracking down the tree. And Samyaza planned on enjoying herself. This was going to be a momentous occasion. She wanted to savor it.

“The caravan has entered the airport,” Kendrick reported.

Elisabeta leaned forward, staring at the screen.
Any minute now.

Four Range Rovers pulled up near the Chandler plane. Some SIA agents hopped out and took up positions around the plane. Elisabeta’s smile grew larger.
Oh, God, this is fun.

“Do you have eyes on the target?” she asked.

“Not yet.”

Two stretchers were offloaded from the SUVs. A giant panther slunk from the back of one, stopped, and looked straight at the camera. Elisabeta stared back at the animal.
What an unusual beast. Maybe I should have my people catch her.

Disregarding the animal, she focused on the people exiting the cars.
Where is she?

Kendrick’s voice came over the phone. “Samyaza. She’s not here.”

Wine sloshed over the edge of Elisabeta’s glass as she lowered it to the table. “
What?
”

“There are four missing from the Range Rovers. When they started the trip, there were twenty-two passengers. Now there are only eighteen.”

“How is that possible? Did they stop somewhere?”

“No, ma’am. They came directly here. We were behind them the whole time.”

Elisabeta glared at the screen.
How did they elude us?

“Ma’am? The rest of the group is entering the plane. Do you want us to—”

Kendrick’s voice cut out.

“Kendrick? Report, Kendrick.” There was no reply. Elisabeta checked her phone. The call was still connected. So why—

“Hello, Samyaza,” a voice called pleasantly over the phone.

“Who is this?” Elisabeta demanded.

“Agent Matthew Clark of the SIA. We’ve taken out a few of your men. I know there are still more out there. The next move is up to you.”

Elisabeta stared at the screen in disbelief. She’d been outmaneuvered. With a yell, she punched through the screen.

That bitch had outsmarted her. Elisabeta paced the short length of the cabin; her followers studiously avoided making eye contact. She took a deep breath, then another, and with each one, she imagined another way she could kill the ring bearer.

Finally Elisabeta smiled. When she caught up with McPhearson, she was going to extend her death. In fact, she was first going to make the ring bearer watch while she killed everyone she knew. And then…

She pictured the ring bearer’s tortured face as she squeezed the breath out of her.

CHAPTER 94

I
can’t believe that worked
, Laney thought, staring out the window at the clouds. Originally, she had wanted Victoria, Ralph, and herself to slip off by themselves, but Clark had suggested they slip away in transit.

So Laney had created a dust storm a few minutes into the ride. Clark had wrapped Laney in his arms and rolled from the car, then regained his feet quickly and sprinted away from the caravan. Ralph had done the same for Victoria.

And no one had been the wiser.

Laney, Ralph, and Victoria had taken the car that was waiting for them and driven to a private plane, which they took to the Bodhgaya Airport where Victoria’s private jet was waiting. Clark had been met by an SIA helicopter and flown to the airfield. There he and his team had located Samyaza’s men and kept them under observation until they moved in.

Laney glanced down at her phone and the text Jen had sent.

We’re all good. In the air.

She smiled. Jen had sent the text over an hour ago, but Laney liked to glance at it—to reassure herself. And also because it was the last message she would receive from them until this was all over. Laney had gotten Jen to promise not to call even if there was a problem. There was nothing Laney could do to help them now, and she needed to get to the tree. That came first.

Laney stared out the plane window, but there was nothing to see. It was still dark. It would take them at least eight hours to reach the Changsha Huanghua International Airport, and then another few hours from there to Heaven’s Gate.

Laney knew she should sleep, but it eluded her. She had picked up her phone half a dozen times, but there was no one to call. She needed everyone focused on their own jobs. And those jobs were to protect Jake and Henry.

She glanced at her watch. The others should be well on their way back to the States by now.

“Not tired?” Victoria asked softly from next to her.

Laney looked over with a start. She had thought Victoria had fallen asleep. She gave her a small smile. “Oh, I’m tired. I just can’t seem to sleep.”

Victoria took her hand. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Laney gave a rueful laugh. “I don’t know where to start. There’s so much going on.”

“Well, is there anything you’d like to ask me?”

Laney examined her mother. She was Lilith—the first woman. She had been around since the very beginning of time. She had sacrificed her chance at eternity to give the rest of humanity that chance. Laney was bowled over by that act of compassion. And by the fact that Victoria now had to suffer through each life and be born again with all that knowledge.

Ignorance really was bliss.

“How do you do it?” Laney asked quietly.

“Do what?”

“Start over. Start again.”

Victoria smiled softly. “It’s not a choice. It has to be done.”

“But don’t you ever despair? Don’t you ever just want to check out, find an island, live your days in peace?”

Victoria smiled. “Well, not every lifetime is as exciting as this one. And there are moments of peace. But I suppose in many ways my life is no different than anyone else’s: there’s joy, sadness, laughter, love, grief.”

Laney looked at Victoria’s face, and what she saw there was peace and acceptance. “You’re really not angry, are you?”

“Oh, I have been angry—many times. I have wanted to rail against the injustice of it all. But eventually those feelings pass. And I know what I’m doing is what needs to be done.”

“But the loss…” Laney bit her lip as images of Kati, Max, Maddox, Henry, and Jake swam through her mind.

“The loss is always hard. But no one ever truly goes away. We see them again and again. In this life or the next.”

“But what if you don’t recognize them?”

Victoria’s voice held no uncertainty. “You will.”

Laney wanted to believe that was true. That the people she cared about would never be truly gone from her life. That she would see them again. That Drew, Rocky, her parents—they would all still be part of her existence in some way.

“Haven’t you ever met someone and felt like you knew them even though you had just met?” Victoria asked.

Laney nodded. “Yes.”

“That’s because you
have
known them before, in a different life. They come into your life when you need them, and you come into theirs when they need you.”

Laney thought of how she’d come into Kati and Max’s life. How Henry and Jake had shown up in hers. It was true that the people she needed and the people who needed her had arrived when they were needed—even Mustafa and Matt.

“Take your Uncle Patrick,” Victoria said.

Laney looked at her in surprise. “Uncle Patrick?”

“He is always in your life. And in much the same role.”

A memory of the vision she’d had when she’d found the ring in Saqqara. “In ancient Egypt, when the former ring bearer—I mean I—hid the ring. I was accompanied by a man named Gaius. Was he…?”

“Yes. That was your uncle as well.”

Laney was quiet for a moment, her mind drifting through all the twists and turns her life had taken lately, all the revelations that seemed to rock her world. And she realized that this one didn’t shock her nearly as much as most. In fact, it comforted her.

But one thought didn’t. “I’ve lived a few lives too, right?”

“Yes.”

“Do I have the same deal as you, except without the memories?”

“Oh, no, sweetheart, no. It’s true that you have lived many lives. But you are not reborn every lifetime like me. You are born only when you are needed.”

“And when I’m not needed?”

“You are at peace.”

Laney felt relief, but also a little guilt. Victoria lived life after life with no reprieve in sight. She made all these decisions and faced all these challenges, not for her own good, but for everyone else’s. “I’m sorry.”

Surprise flashed across Victoria’s face. “For what?”

“I’ve been so mad at you. I couldn’t understand why you gave me up. Why you turned your back on me but kept Henry.”

“Oh, I never turned my back on you, Laney. And giving you up was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Kind of like you letting Kati and Max go.”

“I get that now. You needed to give me a chance to be safe. Just like I need to give them a chance to be safe.” Laney looked over at her. “Thank you.”

Victoria’s breath hitched. She reached up and cupped Laney’s cheek. “You are so important to me. I would do anything to keep you safe.”

“I love you, Mom.” The words came quietly from Laney’s lips, and she was surprised to hear herself say them. But she also knew how right they felt. And if there was anything she had learned from all of this, it was that life is short, and you need to make sure the important people in your life know how much you care about them before it’s too late.

“I love you too, daughter.”

They sat together in silence. Laney felt a true connection to her mother for the first time. But soon, the thoughts of what they were up against intruded. Images from the ancient stories of Lilith ran through Laney’s mind. Every so often, she would glance over at Victoria. She sat there with her eyes closed, looking at peace. How did she do it?

“What is it, Laney?” Victoria asked, her eyes still closed.

Laney cringed—apparently she hadn’t been as stealthy in her observation as she had thought. “Um, just thinking.”

Victoria opened an eye. “About me?”

Laney nodded.

With a sigh, Victoria pushed her seat back up. “Fire away.”

All the questions she had flew through her mind, but the one she was most curious about brought a blush to her cheeks. She swallowed her discomfort and asked it anyway. “According to the legend, Lilith ran away from Adam because she wouldn’t have sex with him.”

Victoria laughed out loud. “Oh, please. The men who wrote those tales never thought of women as anything but sexual objects. So of course in their minds, if I refused Adam, it could only have been because of sex.”

“So why was it really?”

Victoria smiled. “Adam and I had been together for thousands of years. Most marriages these days make it a few years and people call it a success. I’d say we surpassed those by quite a margin. Even so, we had reached a point where we wanted different things.”

“What did he want?”

Victoria sighed. “He had begun to be intrigued by the Fallen, by the power they wielded. By the wealth they had acquired. I was not so enamored.”

Laney frowned. “But in the story, you refused to lie with him. And fled. The angels found you, and that’s when you made the deal.”

Victoria stayed silent.

Laney’s mind churned. “But that doesn’t make any sense, because when you made the deal, Cain was already grown; he killed Abel the very next day. So Adam was already with Eve by then—and had been for a while.”

“That’s right. Adam and I were no longer together. He was with Eve at that point.”

“So what was the fight between you and Adam about?”

“The fight was about equality, but not only between men and women. It was about the weak versus the strong, the rich versus the poor. Society had reached a point where those who were strongest, those who had the most, were controlling those without. And it was not between me and Adam. As I was the first woman, the Fallen wanted me to stand with them and agree that’s the way it should be—that the strong should have power over the weak. I refused.”

“What happened?”

“I escaped. It wasn’t easy. But there were people who believed the same way I did.”

“The Children of the Law of One.”

“Yes. And I had to make a choice—either allow humanity to continue on its destructive path, or give us all a chance at redemption. I chose the latter.”

Laney was silent for a moment. What an incredible woman. Victoria had not just stood up to the Fallen, but really to all of humanity. And she was still fighting the same fight.

And now there was a threat that might reverse all that Victoria had done, all she had sacrificed.

“Is this the first time someone has made a play for the tree?”

“No. There have been other attempts.”

Laney thought of the tales of different emperors and kings who throughout time had tried and failed to find the secret to eternal life. The most famous person attached to a search for the Fountain of Youth was probably Ponce de Leon. But Laney recalled a Smithsonian article that suggested he never had in fact been searching for immortality, and that he wasn’t even associated with a quest for eternal youth until fourteen years after his death.

Chinese emperors, however, were a different story. China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, became obsessed with obtaining immortality. And the Chinese emperors following Qin Shi Huang were similarly driven to find the cure for mortality. They encouraged monks to explore chemical combinations that could stave off death. Ironically, it was through those experiments that they actually ended up creating gunpowder.

“Has anyone ever gotten close?” Laney asked.

Victoria nodded. “One searcher actually succeeded.”

“Who?”

“Gilgamesh.”

Laney sat back in surprise. She thought of the tale of Gilgamesh, looking at it with fresh eyes in light of what she now knew. Gilgamesh was most famous for the tale of the flood. But there was another aspect of his story that had drawn many researchers to it: Gilgamesh’s quest for immortality.

Gilgamesh was born into royalty, and due to his innate abilities and his privileged birth, he was given everything he wanted. Which made him spoiled and obnoxious, but also very lonely. As a result, the gods created a friend for Gilgamesh, his other half: Enkidu.

Enkidu was reported to have been as powerfully built as Gilgamesh, but he was described as a wild man. Together the two wreaked quite a bit of havoc, and eventually, their exploits caught up with them. Enkidu was punished for their transgression. The punishment was death.

Enkidu’s death was Gilgamesh’s first exposure to loss. He was beside himself with grief. So he searched out an immortal human named Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh that there was a plant at the bottom of the sea that would make him immortal. Gilgamesh managed to get the plant—but then when he was drunk, a snake stole the plant and carried it away.

Laney looked back out the window.
The bottom of the sea. The place where some scholars place the original Garden of Eden.
She wondered for a moment about the snake and how it was alleged to have gotten the plant back from Gilgamesh. Snakes seemed to dominate the stories she’d been hearing lately: the snake in the Garden, the snakes on the door of the vault in the temple, the snake stealing the plant from Gilgamesh.

“That was the first Garden of Eden,” Laney said.

Victoria nodded. “And the first time it was moved.”