Celestial Beginnings (Nephilim Series) (14 page)

When Nicci left, Trinity decided to get up and gather her belongings.
Man, she wanted out of this hospital gown. Her face turned beet, wondering who changed her into it. Was Malachi around? Surely they wouldn’t allow that!

She limped to the cabinet and found clothes in a plastic bag designated for the patient’s personal affects.
That’s weird. These were her clothes, but not the ones she wore this morning when she left home. There was only one explanation. Trinity’s grin widened when she thought how it was really nice sometimes to have a best friend that never missed any details.

She went into the bathroom and shut the door when she wanted to change.
No need to be walked in on by the doctor. As she removed her hospital gown, she examined herself in the bathroom mirror. There were scratches all over her arms and legs, but nothing as bad as she thought there would be.

There was a bruise at her temple.
When Trinity saw that, she examined her head for an open wound but found none. This didn’t make any sense. She remembered touching the area after it happened and her hand coming away with blood on it.

She then turned around to try and see her back.
From what she could see, there was nothing there. How is this possible, she thought? How can someone get rammed with a log and not even have a bruise to show for it. She knew from previous accounts that she bruised easily, but where was all the evidence on her from today’s events? So many things about this weren’t adding up.

When she came out of the bathroom, Nicci and the doctor were waiting for her.
She started limping to the bed, and Nicci came to her side to help her.

“You shouldn’t be on that foot yet.”
Nicole…always the mother hen.

“It’s okay.
I’m fine.”

The doctor spoke up before he sat at the chair by the bed.
“I have to agree with your friend.” Shaking her hand he introduced himself. “Hello Ms. Bradshaw, I’m Dr. Lewis. Why don’t you sit down so I can take a look at it?”

When Trinity sat down, he slowly undid the wrap they had put around it.
The ankle looked swollen, but no discoloration. This was obviously a good sign because the doctor seemed pleased. He rotated and pushed lightly on it but there was only a mild discomfort.

“This looks even better than when you came in.
I would expect you to only need the wrap for a few more days at this rate.”

As the doctor stood up, he examined the visible abrasions with an expression of awe.
“You must be a fast healer, because even these look ten times better than earlier.”

Trinity didn’t know what to say to this.
She always thought she healed at a normal rate, but she guessed she didn’t really know what the normal rate was.

When he reached her head, he shined a light into her eyes and massaged her head for any tenderness.
It worried him that he couldn't find anything physical to explain why she wouldn’t wake up for so long, but eventually chalked it up to her body not being ready yet after so much trauma.

After telling her to checkup with her normal doctor in a few days, he discharged her before leaving the room.
Woohoo! Freedom!

Trinity and Nicole then gathered everything up and left the room, conveniently leaving the vase with the single rose.
When they got to the outside doors, she looked in Nicole’s direction. “Okay, your car or mine?”

Nicole’s head swung around so fast.
She gave Trinity a rueful look that showed how clueless she was on what to say. It was too much, Trinity started to laugh which caused an elbow to get thrown in her direction.

“Hey!
You can’t hit me! There has to be a rule somewhere that says a person leaving a hospital can’t get elbowed.”

Nicole just rolled her eyes and started walking into the parking lot.
This caused Trinity to chuckle once more.

After a day like today, she just felt lucky to be able to be with her friend again.
She planned on doing a lot more now that she learned firsthand how unexpectedly a person’s life can end. Heck, she already said she would go on a date with Malachi. How exciting, she thought. She had a bad feeling that she was going to turn into one of those women that check their phone constantly and cross their fingers that he was going to call. Ugh!

Chapter 9

By the time he had called four days later, Trinity had all but given up on him. Life went on as normal; she went to work and came home. It was recommended to her to take time off for emotional turmoil, but she felt no need to. She quickly fell back into the groove of things, so was thrown off on Wednesday night when she got the call.

He called to see if she wanted to have dinner that Saturday night.
She wanted to say yes, she really did, but Nicole had told her alarming information about him. It was something she needed to get cleared up before she agreed to anything.

“I want to but…”
She had always planned to ask him about this if he called, but now that the time had come, she wasn’t sure how to start. If Nicci was wrong, there was a possibility it could screw everything up.

“But…?”
He dragged on the single word.

Taking a deep breath she forged on.
“My friend Nicci said she had met you before.” Just to clarify, “outside a coffee shop…about a week ago.”

There was no mistaking the heavy sigh that sounded from the other line.
“Not one of my prouder moments.” He grumbled.

Trinity’s heart sank.
It was true! Dammit, after her past, how could she willingly go out with a man like that?

He forged on since she had remained silent.
“Listen, I know my friend was out of line by grabbing the kids arm, but this kid was shoving everyone around in the store and not caring. He grabbed his arm after the kid started taunting him.”

In a smaller voice than before, she asked something he had forgotten to add.
“And he shook him?”

“Once again… not proud.
It was actually more of a “jar” instead of a “shake”, to emphasize the point of not being a bully.”

“So your friend was a bully to
emphasize
not being a bully?”

There was that sigh again.
“I know. It was kind of mixed up.” When Trinity didn’t speak, he continued with a refined resolve. “I understand if you don’t want to have dinner because of this, but I hope you will. What happened that day was not normal for me. You will know this if we get to know each other better. We had our dreams, but now it’s time for reality to take over.” He continued in a huskier voice, “Let’s see if we’re as good together here as we were there.”

Trinity felt her face heat up.
Man, she was going to turn to mush around him if he kept talking like that. She had to keep her wits about her, because she saw him as a man that could bring any woman to her knees. He was right though; she needed to get to know him better before jumping to any conclusions. Needing neutral ground, she started to wrack her brain on where they could meet.

“Okay, but I get to pick the place.”

She swore she could hear the tension leave his body. Maybe that was because hers did too, but now a new feeling was growing…anticipation?

“There’s a place just inside downtown Chicago.
It’s a small dive, but has a mean loaded baked potato. We could eat earlier then walk around some; learn a little bit more about each other.” When he didn’t say anything right away, she got worried. “Is that okay?”

“Sounds good.
Would you like me to pick you up?” Malachi put the offer out there, but she thought it would negate the neutral ground plan.

“No.”
The answer came out faster than she intended. “I mean, thanks anyway, but I can drive.”

“I wasn’t trying to overstep.
I just figured, with your car…” He trailed off the sentence but Trinity had no problem understanding where he was going with it. She chuckled to loosen her nerves.

“Oh!
I’ll just use my friends, but thank you for the offer.”

“You’re welcome.”

The honesty in his voice made her stumble over her words. “Um, what time…did you want to meet I mean?” Before he could answer, she forged on. “How about 5:30? Is that too early for you? If it is, we could make it six o’clock, but-”

“5:30’s fine.”
His answer interrupted her nervous babbling and Trinity found herself smiling.

There was a silence that stretched between them.
It wasn’t uncomfortable, but was filled with charged anticipation instead. What should she say now? She had no idea. It turned out to be him that spoke first.

“Please tell me you’re as nervous as I am right now.”
It took a lot of guts for him to put out there like that, but did she have it in her? Deciding the truth was the best option, she told him exactly what she felt.

“Probably more, but I can’t get this silly grin off my face.”
Trinity giggled, which made him chuckle as well.

The sound made her smile even wider.
There’s the man she knew. She wanted more of him.

“Me either…must be kindred spirits.”

With those parting words, she gave him the name of the restaurant with the assurance he could find it.
She reminded him of the time before saying she would see him then. Hanging up the phone, she felt just like when she said yes to the first date she ever had. Giddy; unbelievably, she was actually giddy!

******

It seemed like it took forever for Saturday to get there.
Malachi was nervous, which was weird because he never got nervous, not even on missions.

Why could this one woman make him sweat when entering a lair of demented beings didn’t?

Because it was her, that’s why.
She was the one that calmed him after a long day. She was the one that he feared would have made him want to sleep forever.

He told himself that he had to stay focused.
This was for information, that’s all. He needed to find out why they dreamt of each other, and also why they hadn’t since they had met in person.

It was 5 o’clock when he parked outside the place they were meeting.
This gave him a little time to sort through his thoughts. He knew next to nothing about her, except, of course, that she was human. What connection would he ever have to a human?

That was a point drilled in by his team.
His mind went back to the meeting he had with them on Thursday, after talking to Trinity the day before. Whatever this was might affect them as well, so he thought he should clue them in.

He started off the meeting by mentioning the dreams.
He didn’t go into full detail but gave the gist and let them fill in the holes. This got mixed reactions.

Gideon blew up.
“You brought us all here to inform us of your wet dreams? This is ridiculous!”

Tori looked bored while Terah just stared at him.

While the girls sat silent, Gemariah had to add his two cents as well.
“Alright man! Is she hot?”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he shook his head in frustration.
“Are you finished?” The question was directed at both the men, and when it was met with silence, he started again.

“What I was saying was that I was having these dreams for a week.
I was tired all the time during the day, almost enough to lose my focus. I partially believe this was the intended purpose.” He paused to make sure everyone was listening. “Here’s where it gets tricky. The day the bridge exploded, I met this same woman; in person.” Malachi held up his hand to stop the comments he knew were coming. “…and yes, I know it’s her. We have talked and confirmed that we were in each other’s dreams. She was just as shocked as I was.”

This wiped the smug look off Gemariah as he joined in the others’ concern.

“So, what now?
Tori asked.

“I talked to her on the phone yesterday.
We‘re meeting Saturday evening to talk.”

Gideon sat forward.
“Where is the meeting taking place?”

“A small restaurant in the city.”

“That’s an odd place for a meeting; too many weak areas to get taken off guard. Why not bring her to one of our conference rooms? We could all be there.”

Malachi clinched his teeth, not wanting to go further with details about tomorrow.
“She’s more comfortable there. We’re having dinner, and going to talk in a relaxed setting.”

Of course nothing escapes Gideon’s notice.
“You’re going on a date? Shit, Malachi. Not only are you ditching us on patrol, but you’re doing it so you can go play footsie with some human. Pathetic! Your leadership skills are in question with this one.” His voice had risen with his tirade.

Malachi closed his eyes and counted to ten.
“Yea, I’ll admit she thinks it’s a date. I thought it would be easy for her to give up more information.”

“Whoa!
Let me get this straight.” Tori took no time in leaning forward to jump into the conversation. “The same woman that has been dreaming about you, and doing unspeakable things with you…” She gave a mock shudder to show her feelings about that. “Anyways, she thinks the man from her dreams is real and wants to go on a date with her. In actuality, you don’t, and she is just being led on for being a victim as well.”

“We don’t know if she’s a victim!”
Gideon answered for Malachi.        

Standing up, Tori gathered her stuff.
“Well, good luck with this. I won’t be a part of it.”

Gideon got up as well.
“Do your job for once and ask her for family history. You might be connected somehow.” He turned around to leave, but stopped when he remembered something else. “Ask if she has met anyone strange lately as well.”

Firing off his last minute comments, Gideon left right after Tori.

The three of them stood up to depart as well. Malachi glanced over at Terah, who had been silent the whole time. By the look on her face, he knew there was something up.

“Hey Gemariah, give us a minute.”
He didn’t even look at Gemariah, because he was still examining Terah’s facial responses.

“Sure, I’ll be outside.”

Once he left, Malachi asked the question he already knew the answer to. “You knew, didn’t you? That day at the river…you knew about her.”

“Mal, you know there are some visions that I can’t talk about; the ones that shouldn’t be changed.”
Her voice was just above a whisper.

“That didn’t answer my question.”

A groan came from Terah before she finally answered. “I kind of did. I knew there was someone there close to you that was going to die.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, she didn’t die.”
Malachi was trying to understand it all.

“I know!
I don’t get it. I have been racking my brain on this one.” Terah paused, trying to figure out the right words. “Whenever I look deeper at her, I can’t find anything. It’s like she disappeared from my scope; erased from the future. I can see something with anyone if I try hard enough; even small details. The only time I can’t is if someone’s gone, deceased. Therefore, all my senses are telling me that she’s…she’s dead.”

“That’s insane.
How can she be out there right now, living?”

Terah started to shake her head.
“I don’t know! All I know is that she was supposed to die that day, but you saved her.”

“Only because you told me to go after her!” Malachi pointed out.
Then another thought came to him. “Why would you get me out there? Why would you want me to be the one to find her dead?”

Terah, more or less, was talking to herself.
“Now that you mention it; that could have been what caused all this. I’ll have to look more into it.” After a brief pause, she focused back on Malachi. “To answer your other questions…I liked her; she was strong, commanding, and giving. I didn’t think she should have to die alone.”

Looking at his feet, Malachi was trying to slow his heart down.
He didn’t care to think of that day and how close Trinity
did
almost come to dying.

Looking back up, Malachi dismissed Terah only to have Gemariah come back in.

Gemariah sat down and started to stare at Malachi. It was a little unnerving and starting to get uncomfortable. “What?”

Leaning forward, his gaze landed on Malachi’s.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?

That was not a question Malachi thought would come out of Gemariah.

“Right now, I’m cleaning up the desk so I can…”

Gemariah interrupted him.
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

“No Gemariah.
What do you mean?”

Eyeing Malachi, Gemariah continued.
“I saw you at the river when you figured out who she was. You were panicked. You can act flippant all you want, but I know that she means more to you than you’re letting on.”

He really didn’t want to lie to his friend, but he couldn’t tell him everything.
“Yeah, it took me by surprise. Think about what I told you about the dreams, then think about seeing that person for the first time…dying. How was I supposed to act, when I didn’t have all the facts?”