Beauty and the Beast (6 page)

Allowing his inner Demon, which Vincent normally kept securely leashed, to surface in the protection of his

family and friends always hurt him. Diana desperately wanted to protect him from that harm. She had seen first hand the damage it did to Vincent, to be forced to return violence for violence in the defense of those he cared about. When he had abruptly left her loft after only three days of recovery from nearly being killed by Gabriel, when he blew up the boat, Diana had come to the tunnels looking for him. She knew that he needed help hunting for his child in a world where he couldn’t show his face, and she wanted to convince him to let her help him. Vincent had saved Diana from a cruel violation and death at the hands of three assailants who were in the drainage tunnel when she arrived, and the visible effect it had on him to have to kill those men, even though they were armed and bent on killing others, was heartbreaking.

When Gabriel had used his corrupt policemen within the police force to abduct Diana, had informed her that Vincent’s child was dying, and then had instructed her to tell Vincent, she knew it was a trap. However, the child’s plight was real, and Gabriel was convinced that only Vincent could save him. What Gabriel didn’t understand was that it was Vincent’s empathic attachment the baby needed, and not his blood. Diana warned Vincent that he would be captured if he went to Gabriel, but Vincent had been experiencing visions of his child’s illness, and he already knew the baby would die if he didn’t go.

As expected, Gabriel imprisoned Vincent in an electrified cage, extracting blood from him which was

incompatible with the baby’s. Gabriel finally had sense enough to allow Vincent to hold his baby for several hours. As soon as their empathic bond was established, the child recovered.

Gabriel had taken Diana’s weapon from her, and because Gabriel’s people had her apartment under surveillance, Diana was not only unarmed, but she couldn’t even get to her police badge to go rescue Vincent and the baby. Meanwhile, Father’s community was in a panic, because Vincent was missing, so Father arranged to have a couple of their Helpers from above snatch Diana, to see if she had information on Vincent’s location. That was the first time Diana had met any of Vincent’s family and friends. They had apologized for frightening her, but explained that the last time they had seen Vincent was when he received her message.

She had explained the danger Vincent was in, and how she was cut off both from her badge, and from Acting District Attorney Joe Maxwell, because of the unknown criminal elements controlled by Gabriel in the legal system. Thanks to Gabriel she was also unarmed. At a time when Father’s world was in danger, Catherine had given him her pistol for protection. When Father understood that Diana needed a weapon to rescue Vincent, he sent for and then gave Diana Catherine’s gun. Then Father, himself, went to Joe Maxwell to tell him where he could meet with Diana in safety to plan storming Gabriel’s mansion.

When Joe met with Diana at the Dinosaur Museum, they were nearly abducted by one of Gabriel’s henchmen, but a cabby, a food vendor, and a maintenance worker, all Helpers, managed to take the criminal into custody and then turned him over to Joe and the museum security guards. Joe was completely bewildered by Diana’s civilian bodyguards, but fortunately, there was no time for him to ask questions about them. While Joe and the police force were planning their attack on Gabriel’s mansion, Diana went back to Father, and they went underground through the tunnels to rescue Vincent and the baby before the police could get there and find them too.

Gabriel, knowing that the police were on their way, was ready to smother the baby with a pillow, all the while telling him in his maniacal insanity, that he loved him. Vincent had felt the danger, had broken out of the electrified cage he was in, and had raced through the mansion to stop Gabriel. That was when Diana got there, just in time to prevent Vincent from killing Gabriel.

After she sent Vincent with his rescued baby to Father in the tunnels below the mansion, Diana confronted Gabriel with the gun Father had given her. He proceeded to thank her for rescuing him from Vincent and then informed her that he probably wouldn’t be convicted, and if he was, he could rule his evil empire from prison and would soon have Vincent’s child back under his control again. Diana had calmly said, “Not this time, Gabriel.

This is Catherine Chandler’s gun.” That was the end of

Gabriel.

Diana’s decision to end Gabriel’s miserable existence had not been without psychological consequences. Now, she had a much better understanding of how it hurt Vincent to unleash the avenging Demon within him. What Diana couldn’t have known at that time was that an even greater evil was lurking in the shadows ready to threaten Vincent’s world once again.

Diana looked over at Vincent, who had fallen sound asleep while she was humming, probably the first good sleep he had experienced in the last nine months—the six months that Catherine was missing, and the three since her death on October 13
^th
. Little Jacob was asleep in her arms as well. Diana laid the baby in his bassinet with a kiss. Then she went to Vincent’s bedside and gently picked his hand up. She carefully opened it, extracted the ceramic rose, and then laid his hand back on his chest. She put the rose back in its pouch and leaned over, giving Vincent a kiss on his forehead, before walking softly out of his chamber to go find Father.

On the way, she ran into Mary in the passageway. Diana couldn’t help but smile whenever she saw Mary with her light, youthful step belying her age. She was about the same age as Father, but there was nothing matronly about her. Tall and slender, she was a truly beautiful woman with a refined air about her. Her fine features were set off by long, soft, light brown hair,

carefully wound on top of her head in a very becoming style. She was the community’s head nurse and their midwife, and she took her responsibilities very seriously. “Hello, Mary.” Diana greeted her.

“Are you leaving us then, Diana?” Mary asked.

Diana replied. “Not yet. I’m going to see Father. You don’t need to worry right now about Vincent and Little Jacob. They are both sound asleep.”

“You’re sure Vincent’s asleep?” Mary asked incredulously.

“He is really asleep!” Diana assured her.

Mary shook her head in amazement. “Then, you’ve managed to accomplish what none of us have been able to do in the nine months since Catherine first disappeared, get him to relax enough to sleep. He spent six of those months scouring the city looking for Catherine, and then the next more than two months scouring the city looking for his baby. Even though Little Jacob has been safe down here for a couple of weeks now, Vincent still hasn’t relaxed. We were beginning to wonder if he would ever sleep peacefully again.”

Diana smiled, “I’m glad I could help.”

“You’ve helped more than you can possibly know. Ill go watch over them, so the baby won’t wake Vincent.” Diana watched Mary disappear around the corner headed for Vincent’s chamber. Then she resumed her trek back to Father’s chamber.

When Diana finally arrived in Father’s chamber, she found him sitting at his table, just thinking. It was easy for Diana to think of Jacob Wells as “Father.” With his cultured demeanor and his carefully trimmed brown beard and mustache, with just a distinguished touch of silver, he looked very patriarchal. His confidence made people forget his disabling limp, and hardly notice the cane he needed to get around the tunnels. He was the community’s physician, and a brilliant surgeon, as well as the original founder of their world. Between his skill and Mary’s attentive nursing, these people had the very best in medical care.

He looked up and said, “Do you know that today is January 12
^th
? This is the 35
^th
anniversary of the day that Vincent came into our lives.”

Diana smiled, “You were blessed that he did.”

Father went on, “We should be preparing for our Winter Fest celebration about now. We usually have it the first week in February, and it takes some time to get ready for it. No one is in the mood to celebrate, though, with Vincent in mourning, and without Catherine with us.” Diana was intrigued. “Winter Fest?”

Father explained, “We celebrate all of the holidays you do in the world above down here, but Winter Fest is our own. It is a special holiday we created to celebrate the beginning of our world here, bringing light into this labyrinth of dark tunnels, and making it our home. Our newest candle maker, who has been Rebecca for a couple of years now, makes lovely long yellow-orange tapered candles with white tips. We then send the children above with these candles, to give one to each of our Helpers.

This celebration is as much to honor them for the light they bring to our world, as it is to celebrate the creation of our world. They are then led down here, and we all travel to one of our lower caverns, which we call the Great Hall.

It is hung with beautiful tapestries, and is furnished with candle chandeliers, very large banquet tables, and smaller tables around the outer walls, along with plenty of chairs. We then have a ceremony which begins in total darkness to symbolize the way the tunnels were once dark. I light my candle and then light the candles of those on either side of me. Then everyone lights each other’s candles as well as the chandeliers, and the whole room is then full of light. After that, we enjoy the feast that William loves preparing for us, and there is dancing to music played by our talented musicians. We finish by playing games and just having a lot of fun socializing with one another.”

Diana was fascinated. “What a lovely holiday! Ill help you pray it is only postponed, not completely missed this year.” She then changed the subject. “I wish Vincent had been my big brother too, as he is to all of the children here. I can’t help but love him like they do.”

Father studied her thoughtfully for a moment, “If you really feel that way about my son, then there is something I think you need to know in order to assist us in helping him. It is a secret about Catherine, and he mustn’t know yet.”

Diana was filled with concern. “Tell me, Father!”

Father got up from the table and walked toward his sleeping chamber. “Let me show you something which Vincent still doesn’t remember.” He walked to a drawer in his bedroom chamber and took out a piece of paper and a gold ring, studded all around with tiny heart shaped crystals, and showed them to Diana.

Diana took the paper from him and examined it.

“They were married! This is a legal document. How is this possible?”

Father explained, “We have Helpers in many places, including the Department of Vital Statistics. They help us with marriage and death certificates, even Social Security numbers for those of our children who grow up and decide to leave our world here for college or work in the world above.”

Diana was struggling to wrap her mind around what Father was telling her. “Was there a marriage ceremony for Vincent and Catherine?”

Father smiled softly, “Yes, it was a lovely ceremony, performed by our Chinese helper, Kevin Chin, who has performed all of the marriages in our world. They were married more than a year ago, the last Saturday in September.”

Diana took the ring from him. “This ring is beautiful, Father! It is way too big to be Catherine’s. Is it Vincent’s?”

Father answered, “Yes. Catherine’s rings are on her.”

Diana pursed her lips. “I see. You buried her with them.”

Father tipped his head sideways and raised his eyebrows, “No, but she is wearing them.” Diana looked at Father in stunned silence, as the meaning of his words began to sink in. Father continued, “Catherine is alive!” Diana’s jaw dropped. “And Vincent doesn’t know? Father, he is in such pain!”

Father said very emphatically, “He mustn’t know! The entire community knows and is shielding Vincent. When we found that she was still alive, her condition was precarious, and we were not sure we could save her. Losing her again would probably have destroyed him. The other problem I worried about was the fact that his empathic links were just beginning to be repaired. While Vincent was in his self-imposed exile, trying to protect us from Gabriel, I gathered everyone together. They had all been coming to me individually, finding out like close communities always do, that Catherine was not dead. I sat them all down, while Vincent was gone, and explained why it was imperative to keep this secret from him. I told them that they mustn’t tell Vincent about Catherine, no matter how hard that became, or heartbreaking it seemed. I explained to them that if he knew before he was fully well, with his empathic link to her reestablished, his desperation to save her would surely impair the complete restoration of that link.”

Diana nodded as understanding dawned on her, “I can

see that. Please don’t worry, Father. ’Need to know’ is a part of my job description. Vincent won’t find out from me.

Father told Diana about the struggles he had been having with Vincent, especially before he found his child, trying to keep him from taking reckless chances. He told her that he had been compelled to tell him, when he went after Gabriel’s murderous assassin, Snow, “You won’t find Catherine again by embracing death!” Diana agreed that she had also been having similar conversations with him, when she was trying to convince him to let her help him.

Father continued, with pain in his voice, “I can’t tell you how hard it was, in that moment, not to tell him that Catherine was still alive. I knew, though, that it would destroy what we were trying to accomplish in helping him to heal his link, and the distraction of that knowledge would probably have gotten him killed in going after Snow. Vincent certainly wasn’t going to allow Snow to continue his killing rampage down here. Before Vincent could get to Snow, he killed two of our community members. One of his victims was just a teenage boy.”

Diana told Father about one of her first conversations with Vincent, after she found him on Catherine’s grave, badly wounded. “While Vincent was recovering those three days in my loft, after Gabriel blew up the Compass Rose with Vincent and Elliott Burch on it, he told me about his connection to Catherine and how it had been broken. I told him I was sure that ability would return to