The Sons of Destiny (The Reluctant Hero Trilogy Book 3) (9 page)

“I don’t know what’s going on inside your head, but we really need to act. Now!”

Magena shook herself out of her thoughts and realized only a few seconds had elapsed. She had expected that the phony Jezebel and her Baal worshiping army to be gone. No such luck.

She narrowed her eyes and almost smiled. “The only way to do this is to just do it. I understand that!”

Reuben smiled. “I think so. On the count of three?”

“Three!” she exclaimed as she took off toward the treasure.

Apparently, Reuben did not expect the short count, but was still on her heels, nonetheless.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion, as most things had for Magena since the operation started.

She reached Yasmeen just as the phony queen’s hand was placed on the treasure. The other hand still gripped her minion’s hand.

Yasmeen, her crew, and the treasure all started to shimmer and become slightly blurry. Magena managed to get a hand on one of the antique jewelry boxes and held on for dear life. Reuben joined her, and it snapped loose. They both breathed a sigh of relief.

Then she saw something. Magena noticed the Shroud of Turin tube still lying back there, and realized it hadn’t been touched yet.

“Take this!” She quickly released the treasure box to Reuben and dashed to where she had seen the tube. Grabbing it frantically, she rushed back to Reuben and held it in front of her, while making contact with the treasure again with her free hand. Reuben still held on and an electricity filled the air. A thickness in the air disappeared. Reuben grasped the tube containing the shroud. He was smart enough to open the tube and pull out the shroud.

The virtual world faded.

She felt the sensation of
Jezebel
’s fortune fade at the same time. It seemed like time was moving faster now, as they both touched the bare shroud and the box of jewels at the same time.

Lightning flashed and thunder rolled, driving the darkness away. With an amazingly slow radiation of light, the phony Jezebel, the Hive members, and Jezebel’s jewels all disappeared. They were gone.

“Let’s go,” said Reuben. “We’re through here.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Daniel

Daniel saw the Hive of Baal arrive in the area. They circled the camp and moved in closer. He could see something in the middle of the Hive horde. It looked like a woman with a crown on her head—a queen.

Daniel knew who it was, but wondered why she was dressed like that, when her minions were almost exactly as he had seen them before. It was a question he would like to know the answer to.

Slowly, the central figure struggled to stand, shedding a dark debris and bringing into view the person inside. It was an enhanced Yasmeen in the appearance of
Jezebel
. Daniel’s eyes widened as he saw her figure shed the last of the dark grime. He had hoped she was gone, but here she was back in his life.

She stood straight and tall. Her waist-length raven hair flowed over her shoulders. Her crystal blue eyes were almost florescent. She wore black leather tight pants and a black leather midriff tank top.

She wore a black onyx bracelet on each wrist and radiated more beauty than any woman Daniel had ever seen. She was dark skinned and looked of Israeli descent. She also looked confused, as she glanced at her hands and flexed her fingers.

A gold chain was laced around her neck. On the chain, a golden coin adorned her neck. The visage of the woman who wore it stood out against her black wardrobe. Dante had created Yasmeen in the image of the coin.

“The lost coin,” Daniel looked at his father with disdain. “She has my coin.”

Dante laughed.

Lightning flashed all around. Daniel felt uneasy. The thunder was loud. Slowly, a radiation of light came out of nowhere, circling the center of the Hive. Circling and circling. The Hive members dropped to their knees as they faced her. Daniel stared at it wondering what was next. Then Daniel saw Yasmeen was laughing nervously, as if she had just learned to walk for the first time. She grabbed her throat and clung to the necklace, looking all around her. As if looking for someone. Maybe Daniel or Magena.

She spotted Daniel. “Ha! If it isn’t
Ahab!”
When
Yasmeen spoke, Dante’s men looked confused, like they couldn’t understand what she was saying. They probably didn’t. She was speaking in Hebrew. She took a step toward Daniel. “You see me now as I am! Don’t you,
Ahab
?”

“Do I really? What is your name now?”

“I am revealed once more to the world as
Jezebel
,
Queen of Israel!” She laughed a haunting sound. “No longer do I hide under the guise of the one known as Yasmeen!”

“It was not a guise.” Daniel spoke seriously. “That is who you are. Even with that, you are not human.”

She looked down at the ground and expressed mirth as she crouched and grabbed fistfuls of dirt and grass. “I am home!” she shouted, throwing the soil. “I am home in Israel forever.”

She laughed again, as Dante started toward her with slow, uneasy steps. Suddenly, every eye was on him. No one bothered to stop him. They just watched. She stopped laughing and rose to her feet. Dante stopped about 5 feet in front of her. The Hive members backed up but were on guard as they eyed him.

“Your Highness,” he said in English, while bowing his head. “Daniel does not understand ancient Hebrew, which is what you have been speaking to him. I, however, spent years learning the language for just this event.”

She glanced at Daniel. Still speaking Hebrew, she said, “Do you understand me, peasant? I know you do. You know what I am saying.”

Surprisingly enough, he said in unbroken Hebrew, “I hear and understand you.” His Hebrew was clear. “Say on.”

Dante looked shocked. “I don’t believe this.”

“I can understand every word you’re saying,
Jezebel
,” Daniel answered, matter-of-factly in Hebrew, with a snarl on his face. “After all, I am
Ahab
, the great king.”

Dante turned to his son in surprise. “What? Where did you learn to speak ancient Hebrew?”

“I guess it must have been in that virtual world you sent me to, Dad,” Daniel answered with disdain.

“Hmm,” Yasmeen returned with a pleased look on her face. “I know not what this word means.
Vur-choo-ahl?”
She inhaled. “But I like it.”

Dante looked at her with a sinister smile. “Perhaps I shall teach you the words of this time and many other things as well while you take over the world?” He raised his eyebrows up and down. “You just have to reign as Queen of the World.”

“What is that?” She lost her smile, as she pointed to a small trace of blood on the corner of his lips. “You are diseased! You must keep away from me.”

“What? No! I bit my lip.” Dante responded in fear mixed with embarrassment. He stepped closer to her. “It’s not like that! I am not contagious…!”

Before he could finish his verbal disclaimer, she opened up her palms and reached out to push him away. As soon as her hands made contact with his body, flames emitted from them, catching his clothing on fire. Smoke engulfed him. His very life essence began to fade. It faded faster and faster until he stiffened into a corpse.

Yasmeen gasped and looked surprised.

“Dad!” Daniel yelled as he ran toward his father, tears streaming down his face. “No, Dad, don’t go until we settle our differences!”

“Don’t touch him,” said Cranston, stepping toward Daniel.

Daniel stopped in his tracks. Still reaching toward Dante, he lowered his head. “Dad, don’t go. I’m sorry.”

“No, Daniel! I said not to touch him.” Alan Cranston huffed while trying to secure the younger DiBenedetto by grabbing his arms. “We have no idea what’s going on here! It looks like misfiring electrical currents.” He held onto Daniel. “Look what happened to your father. It could happen to you, too!”

“Like you care about anything but our money, Alan!” Daniel screamed as he squirmed his way out of Cranston’s grasp.

“That’s not true, Daniel, and you know it.”

Alan Cranston raised his rifle toward the Hive of Baal. “Get out of here.”

A few of Dante’s henchmen stood with him. He said, “Brothers! We are here for a reason! With new knowledge of this timeline, we should have no trouble conquering the Hive members! Raise your guns and be prepared to sacrifice yourselves if need be, to clear a path to our new glory!”

Daniel had to let it go. He realized that anything he did after that was futile anyhow. His father was gone. So he plopped down onto the ground, his face buried in his hands. “I loved you, Dad, when I was young.”

His father had departed his body; long past being able to hear anyone or respond to anything. He was dead. In a matter of seconds, where once stood an egotistical, power-mad, industrialist billionaire, he now lay a smoldering creature of charred ash, not unlike the char that covered Yasmeen when she was manifested in the real world a little earlier.

Daniel and his father never got along, maybe even hated each other, but he still wouldn’t have wished to happen to anyone what happened to Dante, especially someone in his family.

Without emotion, several of Dante’s men huddled together to discuss what their next options were. The Hive of Baal must have seen them, because most of them took off running lickety-split. Suddenly, the army of henchmen opened fire on the Hive, who were running hard and fast into the hills, trying to get away.

A handful stayed back to protect Yasmeen, as she stood and glared at Daniel. “I know… everything.” She looked at the remains of Dante DiBenedetto. “I know everything he knew.” Daniel ignored her.

Only a few of the Hive of Baal were left. They looked confused. Almost as if the members shared the same intellect, they moved as one away from Yasmeen, leaving her to face Daniel alone. The Hive members only had swords and spears. On the other hand, Dante’s men were armed with submachine guns. When they opened fire, they pretty much wiped out the Baal worshipers in minutes. The rest had run away.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Magena

The clouds floated away, and the sky was gray.

Magena was left now touching air with one hand and the shroud with the other. Her eyes widened as she stared at Reuben, as if he had answers as to why the two of them were still in the virtual valley. His look only told her that he didn’t know for sure. “I think we are here because we are real people,” he said defensively.

Now that made sense.

She closed her eyes, as thoughts raced through her memories to figure out if they had done anything wrong. Touching both the shroud and the treasure was the key to getting out of the virtual world the last time. It should have worked this time. She didn’t think that it mattered which one she touched first. It should have been that easy of a solution. If that was true, it was far too late to touch any of the treasure, because it was gone. “What do we do now?” she whispered.

“Maybe we don’t have to do anything,” Reuben said, without whispering since it was just Magena and him now.

She opened one eye and looked at him with interest. “Okay. What else do you have up your sleeve for me? How do we get out of here?”

He looked around, then back at her. He spoke calmly. “Maybe we don’t have to do anything but wait and pray.”

She couldn’t think of anything else either. Reuben would never know how comforted she felt in his presence. Someone taking charge and coming up with simple ideas was great. His suggestion made sense. She nodded and was able to smile without forcing it. She liked that. “Will you just pray, Reuben?”

He didn’t even bow his head. He said, “Help Lord.”

They would wait patiently now until they could think of something. She said, “Perhaps one of the Sons of Destiny will find the van and bring it to us.”

As soon as she spoke, it happened. The van came bouncing over the rough road and stopped by them. “Get in,” Levi called out. “We know where Daniel is. We must go to him immediately.”

Magena and Reuben jumped in the back with Issachar, and they were soon heading down the highway.

Even though Magena knew that the world that Daniel’s father had created wasn’t real, it showed how intelligent he was. Daniel had inherited that intelligence, and he had common sense. Surely he was keeping himself alive. She hoped that wherever Daniel was, he was enjoying some kind of peace.

“Don’t fret.” Reuben told her he had been praying for Daniel silently. “Really! Don’t worry, Magena. I am sure Daniel is fine.”

Levi drove the van around the last hill, where they saw the action. They arrived in the middle of conflict. A handful of the two inferior armies was still fighting. Reuben and Levi got out of the van and looked at the battle and then at each other. “We need to stay out of that fight,” said Levi. Reuben agreed.

“What do we do?” asked Magena.

“Issachar is our greatest fighter,” Reuben told Magena as he helped her out. “He has mastered every type of fighting known to man and is more than proficient at every level. He will take down the wicked army without even touching them.”

The men who led the charge for Dante had opened fire with reckless abandonment into the swarm of Hive members. It was apparent that the Hive was not proficient in massive warfare, because a good percentage of them dropped before they could engage with their ancient weapons.

Magena wasn’t sure she liked being on the sidelines of the first war she ever witnessed. It sickened her to see so many Hive members being lost because of their ignorance, but she knew that she had to keep in mind that they were just figments of Dante and Alan’s imagination.

The Sons of Destiny did not need Magena to fight. For the most part, Magena didn’t really know how to fight anyhow. What she did know how to do was tap into her ancestral fighting spirit and yell. So she gave in and stayed out of the way.

Issachar soon destroyed most of the Hive worshipers as he moved toward Yasmeen. Magena thought of it as being like watching a movie; only up close and personal. Magena remembered stories from her parents about her ancestors fighting wars of their own.

Issachar was the biggest Son of Destiny at 6’ 4” and 250 pounds of solid muscle. He had two 4’ battle staves that he was twirling around with little to no effort as he approached the Hive soldiers.

Magena saw Daniel and Yasmeen together, so she ran over to them. Levi followed her. Yasmeen was saying, “I am now queen. My brain has soaked up all of my master’s knowledge. There is so much to remember. It is just so… overwhelming for me to understand.”

“Then let me help you out with that responsibility.” The familiar voice came from behind Daniel. He turned and looked surprised. Magena looked back to Yasmeen, forming a fighting stance. With her elbows forward and her feet shoulder width apart, she took one step back with her right foot and oriented it with her feet at right angles to each other. Shifting her weight to her right foot, she relaxed her left leg—ready to fight. “You’ve been wanting a piece of me. I’ll take all of you.”

Daniel was impressed. “Keep your body straight now,” he said with pride. “And your hands in guard position.”

Jumping up and down, Magena glared at her opponent. “Okay, Yasmeen, it is just you and me.” Suddenly, Yasmeen whirled her fist toward Magena, missing her. Magena kicked quick and high, pivoting to maximize her punching power. As she pivoted all the way around, she brought her other foot up, kicking Yasmeen in the jaw.

Yasmeen grabbed a spear from the ground and thrust it toward Magena. As she launched the spear, Magena sidestepped it. “You shouldn’t have done that,” said Magena, as she kicked the spear out of her hand. Raising her foot, she kicked Yasmeen on the other jaw, breaking her neck. Before collapsing in death, Yasmeen called to her followers, “Fight back. You must win.”

She was too late. The minions had all run away. They didn’t seem to care that she might die. But now she breathed her last and was dead.

Magena had mixed feelings. She would never have done that to a real person. This was different. The world would be a better place without Yasmeen.

Everything else that was going on at the moment just disappeared from importance as Daniel smiled at Magena. She blushed and smiled back. Stepping over to her, he embraced her for what felt like forever.

Magena pulled away and looked at him. “You look awful. You need to rest.”

“I do need rest. My head is spinning, like I’m suffering from the after-effects of making the transition from the virtual to the real world. I don’t know what it is,” said Daniel, “but going between worlds the way I did leaves something to be desired.”

“I understand. I feel the same way.” Magena stopped and looked at the seared figure on the ground. “What’s that?”

Daniel lowered his head. “That’s… what’s left of… my father.”

“Gracious!” Her eyes bugged out. “Your father! That is awful.”

“I know. Yasmeen did it.”

“We must bury him properly,” said Magena, after getting over the shock. “And bury Yasmeen beside him.”

It was as if Cranston did not care. “If I am to search out new followers and take over this land once again, I assume I should get started.”

“No you don’t,” said Daniel. “I’m sure you just had a heart attack.” Simeon and Levi agreed.

A couple of motorcycles roared up and stopped. They were followed by two SUVs. Magena said, “Sons of Destiny, I assume.”

“Sure are.” Levi and Simeon both beamed.

Reuben and Daniel turned at the same time to see five other young men arrive, all dressed in black slacks and turtleneck shirts. Reuben smiled and pointed at the other men. “Magena. It’s my pleasure to introduce Judah, Gad, Asher, and Zebulun! These are all the Sons of Destiny!”

Magena introduced them to Daniel. He gasped, as he looked at Magena. “You sure do keep some important company nowadays.”