Uprising (Alternate Earth Series, Book 2) (11 page)

“I think Jered and Tristan were there earlier,” Nina says, looking confused by my request. “They didn’t find anything.”

“You never know,” I say with a casual shrug. “She might have left something after they left. It shouldn’t take us long to find out.”

“Are you hungry?” Mason asks me, not needing an explanation for my sudden request to go somewhere alone with Nina. “Would you like me to make you something while you’re gone?”

“I would love a pie,” I tell him. “Any kind of pie.”

“Pie it is, then,” Mason says, leaning over to give me a quick kiss on the lips.

After we all walk out of the graviton cage, I hold my hand out to Nina. She takes it, and phases us to the graveyard.

“I assume,” Nina says, looking at me warily as she lets go of my hand, “that this was just an excuse to get me alone and talk about what happened tonight.”

“You assume right,” I tell her, facing her fully. “Would you have really killed Dillon if Peyton hadn’t helped us?”

Nina’s expression remains guarded, not giving away her true thoughts as she asks, “What do you think?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure,” I tell her. “I would like to think you were just bluffing, but Peyton didn’t seem to have any problem believing you would do exactly what you said.”

“Her reaction was something I was counting on,” Nina tells me. “Very few people forget what you did in the past, especially if it was bad. I was surprised when Brand offered me a place with him and his group. They were willing to help me find my way again and not hold my earlier transgressions against me.”

“I heard you say that you never gave in to the curse. What else could you have done that was so bad?” I have to ask.

Nina stares at me for a moment, as if she’s debating with herself whether or not she will answer my question. Finally, she makes up her mind.

“I knew drinking blood would damn me forever,” she says, “so I fought against the urge. I still fight against it. We all do. If it wasn’t for Brand taking me under his wing, I might have given in to that need a long time ago.”

“What made you resist it in the first place?”

“Have you ever had something you loved with every fiber of your being taken away from you?”

I shake my head.

“Heaven was that thing for me. I knew if I drank human blood, and failed the trials our father was putting us through, I would never be allowed to go back there.”

“But you’ve killed people, right?” I ask, trying to understand where she is making the distinction.

“Yes,” she admits. “I’ve killed to satisfy my anger.”

“Humans?” I ask.

“Yes. I’ve killed them in combat.”

“Even if you gave them a fair chance to beat you, you had to know they didn’t have a hope in hell of winning.”

“Of course I knew,” Nina says, “but, in my mind, it didn’t matter.”

“Peyton didn’t have any problem believing you would kill a Watcher child. Have you killed them before?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Before I joined Brand, I thought I was helping by thinning their numbers. They provided me with a more challenging fight than humans, but they were just as easy to kill in the end.”

“Do you still enjoy killing?”

“Yes,” Nina answers honestly.

“Would you have killed Dillon tonight?” I ask again.

“I needed Peyton to believe I would.”

“Would you have killed Dillon?” I ask more stridently, needing a yes or no answer from her.

Nina lowers her head, looking at the ground before quietly saying, “No.”

“Are you sure?” I demand, wondering if she’s telling me the truth or just saying what I want to hear.

Nina raises her gaze to meet mine.

“There was a time in my life that I could have done exactly what I said and not felt an ounce of guilt over it,” she admits. “However, that isn’t me. I’m not that person anymore.”

“I assume you understand why I’m asking you these questions,” I say.

“Yes,” Nina replies. “You’re worried about Rafe, and what effect being with someone like me could have on him.”

“Do I need to be worried?”

“No. I would never hurt Rafe.”

“This probably isn’t any of my business,” I say, “but I would like to know if anything has changed between the two of you during the last two weeks. I’ve barely seen him long enough to say hello, much less have a serious discussion with him about his love life.”

“He’s… expressed his feelings for me,” Nina says uncomfortably.

I want her to say more, but it’s obvious she won’t without a little prodding.

“And what did you say?”

“I told him that I respected him,” Nina says, as if this were a perfectly reasonable response to what was probably Rafe’s declaration of love. If he ‘expressed his feelings’, I couldn’t imagine him saying anything else of significance.

“How did he take the brush-off?” I ask.

Nina looks confused. “I didn’t brush him off. I let him know that I thought highly of him.”

“Yeah,” I say, drawing the word out, “that’s what we call a brush-off, Nina, which I totally understand. If you don’t care for him romantically, you definitely needed to let him know.”

Nina’s expression turns to one of worry. “Do you think that’s the way he took it?”

“How else was he supposed to take it? When a man tells a woman he loves her, he only does it hoping that she’ll say it back. If you told him you respected him, I’m sure he took it as you saying you only want to be his friend.”

Nina closes her eyes and shakes her head. “That’s why he’s been acting so odd lately.” Nina opens her eyes to look at me and says, “He’s been friendly, mostly because I don’t think he knows how to be any other way with people, but he’s also been keeping his distance, never saying more than what needs to be said.”

“Ok, you’re confusing me,” I tell her. “And, if
I’m
confused, I’m sure he’s confused. What exactly do you want? A friend or something more?”

“I was hoping to explore the ‘something more’ option,” Nina admits, sounding worried she might have missed her opportunity.

“Have you ever been in a romantic relationship before?” I ask, wondering how Nina could miss the mark by such a huge margin.

“Only with the man I was with when I broke my vow to God,” Nina tells me, “but that ended shortly after God cursed us. I left him because all I could think about was killing him. I laid the blame for the curse on him for a very long time. It took me a while to realize I was the one who should have been stronger.”

“If you truly care for Rafe as more than just a friend, then you need to show him.”

“How?” Nina asks, looking slightly desperate for some good advice.

“I don’t know,” I tell her. “It has to come from your heart, Nina. I could stand here and tell you some things to do, but it would mean a lot more to Rafe if you came up with it on your own.”

“Planning a strategy for a war would be much simpler for me,” Nina says in all seriousness.

I can’t help but laugh softly at her plight.

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out,” I say. “Just don’t wait too long to do it.”

Now that I feel a little better about Nina, I turn to search out Utha Mae’s grave. As I walk up to it, I notice a fresh bouquet of daisies in the stone vase underneath her chiseled name. I sigh in disappointment, because I don’t immediately see anything else left behind by Tara to help us understand more about Project T-7.

I sit down beside the grave and reach out to touch the silky texture of the flowers’ petals. Unexpectedly, I feel something hard against my fingers. I grab hold of the small metallic object hidden within the bunch of flowers, and pull it out.

I stare at the miniature trumpet in my hands, wondering why Tara left it behind.

I hear Nina gasp as she sees what I’m holding.

“How could we be so stupid?” she asks softly, more to herself than to me.

“Do you know what this means?” I ask her.

“Yes,” she says with a small nod. “It all makes sense now.”

“What are they looking for?” I ask as my heart beats so fast it feels as though it might jump out of my chest.

Nina holds out her hand. “Come on,” she says. “We need to go back to the others.”

“Nina,” I say, slipping my hand into hers and gripping it tightly, “what does this mean?”

“It means they don’t plan to stop after all the seals are opened,” Nina tells me grimly. “They’re planning to sound the trumpets, too.”

CHAPTER TEN

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, it’s to always be as prepared as possible before going into any situation. For the last few years, I studied the Book of Revelation to make sure I knew what to expect when we got here. I knew exactly what Nina was referring to when she said the princes planned to ‘sound the trumpets’. According to the Bible, after the seven seals have been opened, seven trumpets will be blown by seven angels. With each trumpet blast, another trial begins; each one worse than the one preceding it. It was something we definitely needed to stop.

Nina phases us directly to the kitchen. Mason is standing behind the granite- topped kitchen island, peeling some red apples, while Brand rolls out some dough, presumably to make a piecrust.

“We need to have a meeting,” Nina tells Brand urgently, releasing my hand so she can walk up to him. “Everyone needs to hear what we just found out.”

Brand sets down his rolling pin and brushes off his hands.

“What’s happened?” he asks, looking at Nina and me with concern.

“I think we just discovered what Project T-7 is,” Nina announces, turning her head to look at me. “Show them what Tara left for you.”

I hold up the miniature gold trumpet so they can see it. Both men narrow their gazes on the small instrument before their eyes widen with newfound wisdom.

“It all makes sense now,” Brand says, mirroring Nina’s words. “Let’s gather everyone together so we can discuss what needs to be done next.”

Brand and Nina phase away, presumably to gather those who need to know about the princes’ plan to sound the trumpets.

Mason cleans his hands before walking around the island to come stand in front of me.

“This is bad, Jess,” he says, not trying to pretend that our discovery is anything but. “If they’ve been planning to sound the trumpets after the seventh seal is broken, they must be pretty confident that they can’t be stopped.”

“But they started searching
before
we traveled back here,” I remind him. “We still have time to stop them. I still don’t understand, though, why just seeing this little trumpet made the other pieces of the puzzle fall into place for all of you.”

“We should probably wait until everyone is gathered together to discuss it,” Mason says, taking my hand and phasing us to the library.

Eventually, all the vessels, Malcolm, Jered, Tristan, and the other Watchers staying at the castle, gather in the library so we can discuss what we learned.

“I’ve always considered myself extremely intelligent,” Malcolm says as he stands with his arms crossed over his chest at the front of the room with Brand, not sounding arrogant, just truthful, “but I didn’t put everything together until now.”

“Ok,” I say, “I understand the significance of the trumpet. That’s obvious. But why do you all seem to think you should have known before now?”

“We had all the pieces,” Brand begins to explain. “We just didn’t put them all together until we saw the trumpet.”

“What pieces?”

“Well,” Brand says, “first off, the name of their mission should have been a big hint, Project T-7. Seven trumpets sound during the Apocalypse. Then, the fact that they were digging up sites associated with King Solomon, and the fact that they wanted to get their hands on the Ark of the Covenant.”

“What’s the connection between the Ark and the trumpets?” I ask.

“Do you know the story about the Battle of Jericho?” Malcolm asks me.

“Just the basics,” I admit. “Joshua led his army in the battle. They blew some…trumpets…” I fall silent as I remember Mama Lynn telling me the Bible story. “Wait, are you saying the princes are looking for
those
trumpets?”

Malcolm nods.

“Why did they think they would be in the Ark of the Covenant?” Chandler asks, still sounding confused.

“Because, while the seven priests blew the seven trumpets,” Malcolm says, “the Israelites were also instructed to carry the Ark of the Covenant behind the priest. It was completely logical for them to think that Solomon might have kept the trumpets inside the Ark for safekeeping. But, obviously, he didn’t. He was smarter than that.”

“Has Slade found Horace yet?” I ask Brand. “We have to get to Solomon’s tomb to either retrieve the trumpets first, if that’s where he hid them, or confirm that they aren’t there so we can look elsewhere. Either way, we have to get them before the princes find them.”

“I’ve sent Isaiah to speak with Slade,” Brand reassures me. “He’ll let us know the status of Slade’s search.”

“So were these trumpets that were used in the Battle of Jericho always destined to be the trumpets blown during the Apocalypse?” Rafe asks.

“I can’t really answer that,” Brand admits. “Only God knows the true answer, but they are holy relics imbued with God’s grace. I believe sounding them after all the seals have been broken open will have the same effect. They’ll have seven consecrated trumpets and seven Archangels to sound them.”

“Evil Archangels, at that,” Leah says as she sits on the couch in the room, holding her mother’s hand.

“Exactly,” Brand says.

“But we have Gabriel,” I remind everyone.

“Thankfully,” Brand says with a sigh in relief. “But that won’t stop them from sounding the other six trumpets and causing a great deal of damage.”

“So there’s really nothing we can do until we discover whether or not King Solomon hid these trumpets in his tomb?” Gabe asks.

“We can try to think of other places the trumpets might have been hidden, but, right now, our best bet is the tomb,” Brand says.

“There’s something I can do while we wait,” I say, feeling my heart sink at the thought of what I need to do next. “Lucifer insinuated that he learned the princes’ plans while he was with them. I can try to find out what he knows.”

“Don’t place yourself in any unnecessary danger,” Zack advises me. “You know as well as I do that he’s a master manipulator, Jess. Don’t let him pressure you into anything you don’t want to do.”

“I know,” I tell Zack. “I’m not naive about who Lucifer is.”

Mason looks at me doubtfully. “You care about him,” my husband says, empathetic to my dilemma. “He’ll use that against you, too, Jess. You know he will.”

“I’ll be careful,” I promise.

“There’s also the matter of asking him for help with the infected,” Rafe reminds me. “I don’t think he’s going to do that without getting some sort of compensation.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” I say, bracing for my talk with Lucifer. “In fact, now is probably as good a time as any to see if rescuing him will pay off for us.”

When I stand up, Mason stands up also.

I look at my husband, loving that he wants to go with me, but also knowing his presence would do more harm than good.

“He won’t talk openly with you in the room,” I tell Mason. “You know that.”

“Then I’ll stand right outside,” Mason compromises. “If you need me, I’ll be close by.”

“He might not even be awake yet.”

“Then you won’t have any reason to stay down there for very long. I’m not letting you go without me, so stop arguing,” Mason says stubbornly.

I sigh in defeat, but secretly I love my husband even more for wanting to stay by my side and support me in the difficult task that lies ahead.

“Good luck, Jess,” Xiulan tells me before Mason phases us to the basement.

Of anyone in the room, my ability to gain Lucifer’s cooperation affects her the most. If I am able to talk Lucifer into attempting to release the souls of the infected, she’ll be the first one he helps. I feel a bit conflicted about that outcome. I know freeing Xiulan’s soul from her body is the only thing I can do to help her, but I also know her death will cause someone I love dearly a great deal of pain. It’s a catch-22 really. I want to help, yet, if I do, I cause Leah the heartache of losing a loving parent. No one will come out a winner in this scenario, except for maybe Lucifer.

I have no way of knowing exactly what he will want in return for his help. In his weird, slightly twisted way, I believe he cares for me. I saw it in his eyes right before he pushed me out of the window in Lucian’s office. There was something in the way he gazed at me that spoke volumes. Deep down, I know Michael has been right all these years. Lucifer may have initially come to me because of my connection with Michael, but he stayed because of me.

I’ve always felt like I was his connection to the human world. I was his glimpse into what made us so special, and there was a time I thought he trusted me. But I broke that trust when I offered him back his Archangel crown, or at least that’s the way he saw it. Since that night, I never expected Lucifer to be my friend again. Yet, I felt as if we were being given another chance, here on this alternate Earth. Could a change of scenery truly fix the problems we have? I’m not sure. All I do know is that I want my friend back. For all his faults, I still feel like there is some good left in him, and that I am one of the few people, perhaps the only person, who can grab a hold of that kernel of good and keep it from getting swallowed up by the darkness that threatens to completely consume his soul. If God can continue to maintain His belief that His son can find redemption, then I won’t give up my hope that such a miracle will come to pass one day.

Mason phases us to just outside the graviton cage. As I reach for the door’s latch, my husband places his hand over mine.

“Wait a second,” he says, tenderly taking my hand.

I look up at him questioningly.

“I think we both know that he’ll ask you for something in exchange for his help,” Mason says. “Just promise me you won’t give in before thinking it through completely.”

“I won’t make a rash decision,” I promise. “Whatever he asks for, I’ll tell you what it is before I give him my answer.”

Mason’s shoulders sag in relief. “Thank you.”

I tighten my fingers around Mason’s hand. “We’re in this together, remember?”

“I know,” Mason says with a weak smile.

“But?” I ask, knowing he wants to say more.

“But…I also know how much you want him to change, Jess. I just don’t want to see him disappoint you again. You were so upset when he didn’t accept his crown. I can’t bear the thought of you placing yourself in that sort of position a second time. I hate seeing you hurt, especially when there’s nothing I can do to fix it.”

“Nothing?” I question, astounded that my husband doesn’t realize exactly what he does for me. “Mason, you do
everything
for me in those moments. You listen to me. You hold me while I cry. You tell me everything will be ok, and make me believe it. How can you think you do nothing? I couldn’t have made it through the last few years without you being there for me every step of the way. So never, ever think that you do
nothing,
when the complete opposite is true.”

Mason brings me into his arms and just holds me close. It’s exactly what I need; to be loved and made to feel safe. In all honesty, I don’t want to talk to Lucifer, but not because I fear him or dread having a conversation with him. If I’m being honest with myself, I have to admit that, on occasion, I’ve listened for the creak of the rocking chair on my front porch, signaling his return into my life. I’ve yearned to have him come back and speak with me, so we could clear the air between us to find some common ground on which to rebuild our friendship. Now that I have a chance to speak with him about it, I worry that he’ll reject me the same way he did the night I offered him his crown. The way he threw me to the ground like I meant nothing to him, is an experience I can never forget. What if he turns his back to me a second time? Can my heart survive that sort of treatment twice in one lifetime?

“Are you sure you don’t want me to go in there with you?” Mason asks.

Of course I want you to go in there with me
, I think to myself, but know better than to say. Nothing would get accomplished with Mason in the room. He and Lucifer would simply bicker and waste precious time rekindling the fires of an old feud that can never be extinguished. We didn’t need to anger Lucifer. Pushing his buttons would only defeat our purpose for rescuing him.

“Yes, I’m sure. I can handle Lucifer.”

Mason kisses the top of my head. “If anyone can, I know it’s you.”

I take a step back and try to smile for my husband, even if I don’t feel like smiling.

“I’ll be fine,” I attempt to reassure him, and myself.

“I’ll be right out here if you need me,” Mason promises, not being fooled by my attempt to make things sound easier than they will be.

“Thank you,” I tell him, turning to open the door, and stepping inside the graviton cage.

There are only two pocket lights within Lucifer’s cell. One is directly over the security control panel and the other one shines directly down in the center of Lucifer’s cell. After I close the door behind me, I look through the bars and find Lucifer still lying on his cot, motionless. Perhaps I won’t have to speak with him after all. I begin to breathe a sigh of relief at this possibility, until I see him partially roll over onto his side and peer at me over his pillow. I feel as though I’m a teenage girl who has just been caught by a boy as I tried to sneak into his bedroom.