Inside the Fire Book One in the Warden's Series (15 page)

First, I apparently had woke her up from her
beauty sleep. Second, I looked at my walls. I had somehow set the
house on fire. She waved her hand, and the damage disappeared,
appearing as if it was never touched by flames. I gazed at her in
amazement I had never seen her do that before. It made me question
how many times she’s had to do that for me in the past.

“How long have you been able to do that?”
She asked me still looking angry.

“Done what?” I wasn’t playing dumb I was
actually being truthful on this one. I had no clue what she was
talking about.

“How long have you been able to stand inside
the fire?” She put the extinguisher down.

“I can’t.” I muttered sitting up. “I mean
I’m able to control the flames for the most part. As for standing
inside of it the only time that happens is in my dreams.” She took
a seat at the end of my bed and sighed.

“Honey, I just saw it happen. What I need to
know is how long it’s been happening. If you say it’s in your
dreams then I must ask you one simple question. What are you
dreaming about?” The anger had washed from her face, she was
attentive.

So I told her every second of the dream.
Everything about the woman with the green eyes. About how I had
stood, and the fire had consumed me. Finally, about the blindness
and the screaming. My mother listened intently and when I finished
my story put her hands on my face.

“Pray with me.” I looked at her puzzled but
put my hands in hers.

I’m not a religious person as I said before.
I know that God and Lucifer exist but I do not understand why there
is so much more to religion then just believing. When you think
about it they all lead to the same place. No matter who you call
God or even the Devil. The stories are relatively the same share
the same morals.

So I prayed with my mother. I prayed for the
souls of those that were in our lives. I prayed for the souls of
those that were not. I prayed that I would soon understand why I
was not abolished. I prayed for my mother who made a mistake and
had paid for it over and over again. When I opened my eyes my
mother was looking at me attentively.

“I was afraid.” She started. “I came into
your room after you started screaming. You were levitating about
two feet off the bed and your body was covered in flames. Suddenly
your eyes shot open, they were black as night and you laughed this
evil, evil laugh.” She looked around the room for a second.

“I am so sorry you had to see that mom.” I
said my heart pounding.

“Your father, he used to have nights like
that. Nights when his dreams would be so intense that I would awake
to the warmth of fire in the bedroom his body engulfed in flames. I
would always erase the damages before he woke up. I thought hiding
it from him would keep him with me longer. It was a sign that his
power and duty was calling him. Even though we had been banished
the blood in our veins still had its ties to our duties,” She let a
tear roll down her cheek.

“I’m so sorry mom I didn’t know.” I thought
she had finished, but I was wrong.

“Remember when I said he set fire to the
police station during an investigation.” I nodded. “The crime was a
murder. An eighteen year old boy had violently accosted and beat an
eighteen year old girl. He kept her bound in a closet for a week.
She was dead when they found her body bloody and bruised. The boy
felt no remorse for the murder.”

“Oh goodness that’s horrible.” I said my
eyes wide.

Why did it seem that today was the day for
stories and confessions?

“Your father made one simple mistake.” She
shook her head.

“What happened?” I asked.

“
He touched the boy on the
shoulder. You have to understand if we touch a human we get flashes
of their lives. Sometimes it’s great memories and sometimes it’s
horrors that you wish you could forget. He saw everything that boy
had done to that poor girl. Every last dirty detail from the
abduction to the horrific violation of the girl’s innocence. The
visions ended with the boy beating her near death and throwing her
bleeding body into the closet and locking her in the
darkness.”

Please say my father killed this boy.

“The evil the boy had done ignited something
in your father. He is a demon yes, but there are even some levels
of evil that infuriate him. This was one of them. You were in my
womb, but your father knew from the beginning you were a girl. He
was so infuriated that someone could do this to you in the future,
so his instincts took over.”

Here it comes!

“He burst into flames. Right in front of the
boy. This is forbidden on both levels. He told the boy that he
would be welcomed in the deepest darkest crevice of Hell and he
would suffer the same fate as his victim every day from here to
eternity.” She breathed.

I may not talk to the man but I have a huge
amount of respect for him.

“When the fire cleared the boy was dead.
They blamed it on faulty wiring. This was not the case. Your father
had managed to glamor the cameras in the room so they couldn’t make
out that he had been the cause. We still left. No matter what it
would draw attention.” She glanced at me.

“Why are you telling me all of this now?” I
asked quietly.

“Well, tonight seeing you engulfed in
flames, it has brought back so many memories. I am scared for you
Dawn. Something in you is feeding off the evils of others and so
little is feeding on the good. I am safe to assume now that the
ascension has begun.” She wrapped her arms around me.

“How long does it take?” I whispered in her
ear.

“It could be tomorrow. It could be next
week. It could be ten years from now. You won’t know until it’s
complete. It’s more important now than ever you keep your blood
under control. You could accidently hurt someone. I will help you
but I am only knowledgeable in my own powers. I am limited in what
your father can do.” She kissed my cheek. “It might be time to talk
to him. Call him up and tell him what is going on maybe then you
can get a better understanding of what is happening.” I shook my
head feverously.

“It’s been four years mom. He has had the
chance to get in touch with me and he has not tried.” I stiffened.
“When I left he made no attempt to come after me. He knew where I
was going.”

“Yes, he knew.” My mother repeated flatly.
“Do you think that he’s going to come traipsing over my door step
again? Do you think he’s going to stand there and stare at the
woman that got him kicked from Hell? No, your father is too proud
to put himself in that situation again. He left me when you were a
toddler. I left you with him so he could protect you, and you
returned to me as a teenager. He’s letting you do what you need to
do. He’s not going to put himself into any situations that could
compromise his personal missions. That does not mean that he will
not jump for you. You are just as much a part of him as you are of
me.”

“You weren’t there mother, I was. He called
me an abomination.” I pulled away from her. “He called me
unwanted.”

“You misunderstand. In the eyes of the lord,
even in the eyes of the devil you are something that should simply
not be. Imagine my shock that after hundreds of years of secret
rendezvous I suddenly have a growing being inside me. It was not
supposed to happen, but it did. You are the greatest gift that I
have ever received. No matter if you become one or the other even
if you can manage to control both you are still my daughter just
like you are still his.”

She stood up from the bed, I think she
realized that no matter how hard she tried I was not budging I was
not going to call my father and ask him to help me control the
fire.

“It’s your choice in the end. You will
decide what it is good for you and what isn’t.” She kissed me on
the top of my head. “I love you honey. Never question your mother’s
love as you do your fathers.”

I sat there for a few minutes before lying
back down and pulling the blankets up to my chin. I reached for my
phone. It was 4am, whoa! I had six missed messages. I selected the
icon and looked over them, at a glance there was nothing really
interesting.

I had one from Adam telling me he got home
ok. Then one from Wesley telling me he loved me from an hour ago. I
even had another one from Wesley that looked like he had tried
typing with his eyes closed. I couldn’t decipher what the words
were. Finally I had three from Wesley’s dad.

Greg: Wesley just walked out the door. Is he
coming to you?

Greg: I followed him but when I got outside
he was gone

Greg: I'm scared something has happened to
him.

“MOM!!!” I screamed ripping myself from my
bed and sprinting to her room.

She was up and looking at me her phone
clutched in her hand. She had received the same three messages from
Wesley’s father as I had. She grabbed her jeans and a t-shirt threw
on her jacket and looked at me.

“Get dressed quickly we have to get there!”
Just like that I was running to my room throwing on jeans and a
sweater pulling my hair up in a sloppy pony tail and grabbing my
keys. In less than five minutes we were out the door and on our way
to Wesley’s.

“You have to listen to me no matter what.”
My mother demanded as we drove seventy down the dark highway.

“I will.” I said my pulse was racing.

“I mean it Dawn. There is no room for
error.” My mother was talking to me through a clenched jaw.

“What do you think it is?” I asked my hands
were shaking now, and I clenched them in hopes they would stop.

“I don’t know. But there is one thing that I
do know. Boys just don’t disappear from their back porch in the wee
hours of the morning.”

She stepped on the gas we were reaching
ninety. I was hoping that there were no cops on the road.

Face to Face

We made it to Wesley’s house in record time.
My mother drove like a bat out of Hell as I sat in the passenger
seat texting his father. My fingers flying across the touch screen
as I tried to get more information from him on what happened.

Me: Have you found him yet?

Greg: No nothing not even a single clue.

Of all the nights for Wesley to disappear it
was the one night that I had not seen him. The one night that he
told me he had something important to do.

Greg: I found his hat in the middle of the
field out back there is blood on it. Dear God I hope he is ok.

Wesley had been known to sleep walk. He
would just wander the house talking to himself. Nobody could wake
the boy and Greg would follow his son until he would lie down and
go back to sleep.

My mother put the car in park, gave me a
worried smile, and got out. I followed her up the steps to the
door. She knocked loudly. Mr. Jensen answered with the phone in his
hand. He motioned for us to enter. My mother grabbing my hand
pulled me inside and secured the door behind us. We stood there for
a moment in the entry as Mr. Jensen finished his conversation.

“The last I saw him he was in a white shirt
and plaid pajama bottoms. He’s eighteen, six feet, brown hair and
blue eyes. Yes thank you.” Once he hung up the phone he embraced my
mother tears streaming down his face.

“I called the police. They are going to look
around town see if he is there.” He looked at me and gave me a weak
smile. “He hasn’t done this in so long. I mean he always sleepwalks
but he hasn’t done it like this in about a year.” I looked over at
my mother and she nodded at me.

“Take me to the last place that you saw
him.” She said sweetly. We followed Mr. Jensen to the back door.
Wesley’s keys were still hanging on the hook, first sign that he
was not coming to me. My heart tightened, I felt a sting of pain
seer through me but I held strong not showing what I was
feeling.

“It was right here.” He ran his fingers
through his hair. “He looked at me and smiled. Told me everything
would be ok. He would make things right, restore the balance.” He
sighed. “I stepped towards him and he was out the door. By the time
I was able to get onto the back porch he was gone.”

“Greg, do you have something of his that I
can see?” My mother asked softly.

“I found his hat. It was laying in the
middle of the field out back there is blood on it. Will that help?”
He asked reaching for Wesley’s blue baseball cap that was lying on
the dryer.

“That will do great, thank you.” She looked
at me. “Greg go and check on Melissa. Dawn stay with me.” Mr.
Jensen gave her a sad smile and left the room.

My mother’s hands began to glow, her eyes
turned bluer then I had ever seen then suddenly went milky white.
Her lips were moving, her hands touching the baseball cap first at
the brim then moving around to the back. Suddenly her eyes shot
towards the door and she smiled sweetly. It had only been seconds,
but I was amazed. She shook her head, and her eyes came back to
normal. A look of realization took over her face, and she
gasped.

“He’s alive! We have to go into the woods,
you and me right now. He’s in danger.”

With amazing speed my mother pulled me
through the door and out into the field. Lifting her head to the
sky she sniffed the air. We started running again until we were at
the edge of the forest where she stopped and looked at me once
more.

“I need you to open up to
me. I need you to amplify my power.” I clutched my mother’s hand
and willed the icy prickle to appear. I felt the familiar cold in
my fingers and just like that we burst into white flame. So the
white flame
was
connected to my mother after all. I had never seen her do
this before. To know that this power came from her relieved me
some.