Legacy of the Defender (The Defender Series Book 1) (49 page)

"How...you...we...it...taken...survived...you...truly...touched by...must like...very much…hear...now?  You...this?  we...to...die."  The sentences were not making sense so I reached out and touched my chest and then touched her on the forehead.  She nestled her face in my hand and closed her eyes, her face shrouded in fear.  Finally, the missing pieces filled in.  I could hear again.

"Tathlyn are you...you had us really worried...happened in there?

Things moved as if in a dream, slowly, yet horrifically.  I stared, still dazed. 

"You’re going to have to wait a few more minutes," I did my best to say; very sure it sounded like some degenerative disease had taken root in my brain.  The wind lessened a little but objects toppled towards the gravity well behind us.  I remembered hearing that term in a science fiction movie but could not remember which one. 

As if by magic, the forces pulling on the car subsided like it broke free of a magnet.  Glancing behind I could see everything sucking into a giant cloud that rippled with energy.  Several moments passed as I watched.  Eryn stopped crying and looked behind.  Only the occasional sniffle found my ears over the roar of the engine.  Winds diminished.  Debris fell to the ground just like watching a tornado dissipate; the only difference was there was not much of a debris pile.  The ground past a certain point was a crater.

"What happened in there Tathlyn?”  The inquisitive tone came from the Sergeant.  Silence held my tongue, not sure where to start.  The truth was too unimaginative to speak of, yet something told me not to lie to him.  I decided to go a different route.  I did not know I could fully trust him with it all so I summoned a sword to my hand as I spoke.

"Hold your hand up."

"Why?"

"Do you trust me since I am letting you into aspects of my life that may satisfy some of your questions?”  I asked. 

"Tathlyn what are you doing?”  Eryn protested…her eyes curious, as she did not know where I was going with this.  She looked at the sword tip dipped just below the seat and barely out of sight.

"Hold up your left hand and do not turn around," I said to the Sergeant and waited.  He sighed and did so but more so out of not wanting to press the issue.  Eryn watched as the sword drew a line in the meat of his palm.  He yelped slightly and did not pull his hand back.  A small crimson line ran its way down and dropped off his hand.

"Do you swear to me that your intentions to me are genuine and that you will never betray me, on your life, for you know full well I can kill you at any time?"  His chuckle caught me off guard, but his head nodded with a sigh.

"Yes, Tathlyn, I will not betray you.  Now, what in the heavens happened in there?  Did an anti-gravity bomb go off or what?"  His sentence ended and silence hung in the car as if it was a phone commercial for long distance. 

"Then I have a story to tell you."  Eryn looked over at him.  She had a curious look on her face and her brow furrowed slightly.  She shook her head and looked at me.  At first I did not catch that she was trying to get my attention.  The car stopped around back of a house and she was acting very weird with her expression as if she was trying to say something.  After another few seconds, she finally spoke.

"Tathlyn, he is hiding something."  The Sergeant stepped out of the car and opened my door.  In doing so, he poked his head through the window.  Eryn looked at me as I was backing out of the car in a crawling fashion.  She was worried.

"It is okay.  We will be safe,” he said.

She hesitated but removed her seat belt and opened the door.  Joining me around the drivers’ side on the side walk, she glanced behind us.  Trees cut part of the view out but also hid the back yard from a lot of prying eyes even in a slightly urban environment.  Several miles away a large cloud of dust rose up.  I took her head in my hands and kissed her gently.  She trembled for a moment then relaxed.

"Let us go inside where we can talk."  A sudden ease settled over me as I stepped towards the door of the house and crossed from chaos to calm.  I glanced at him waiting a few feet up.  "We need to get you inside because you
really
are naked.”  The stress on the last word "really" made me look down in confusion.

I was still without clothes.

XXXVIII

Catalyst

This day keeps getting better.

I walked in the house not sure what to expect.  It was the first time there were any good vibes between Sergeant Rick and me.  A short time ago, we stood in Eryn's house and he saw my ability to heal.  Trust was a hard word to use.  He passed a test that day and told me to keep my head down.  His appearance was not just odd, but peculiar.

His house was rather sparse and was void of any real furniture.  Some strange pillows adorned the floor with a low table, and I would have felt funny sitting there naked.  I stood just inside the door and waited until he checked outside one last time.  Caution was fine by me. 

Eryn made a wash room request and was already half way down a short hall by the time I made any observations.  I looked down at my body for the first time, watched the runes slowly rotate, and pulse.  It was like watching a painter change his mind in the middle of a painting; each rune would form then shift to another one.  The raised scar tissue was gone where the runes moved.  I deduced my mind knew where they belonged and responded with some sort of mark.  The hypnotic patterns drew me in easily.  All those memories tried hard to remind me of who I was.  It is amazing it took seeing Amduscias.  

I needed to take it easy right now for a few minutes.  A glance up at the wall caught my eyes.

There were paintings on the walls.  The theme surprised me, for there were lots of pictures of mystical creatures and some of the angels watching over mankind.  I looked closer and, to my surprise, the armor on the angels was highly accurate, right down to the cloak I had seen in Heaven.  Closer examination brought my weapons to my hands for the angels were standing on a solid gold wall.  In the background, there was a portal…with a very large man in front of it.  Daemons flowed through the opening and the man and the angels cut them down.  

Something in the room changed. 

"Do not be alarmed," a soothing voice came from behind me.  I spun around quickly to find no one.  My eyes panned the room.  The voice had a distinctive sound.  One heard before but in another place.  I suddenly felt less threatened and lowered my blades.  An angel materialized before me in all of her splendor, fully armored and just as beautiful as I remembered them to be.  She offered me a nod.  "My lord, please forgive the secrecy over the last few months.  I feel bad for misleading you this entire time.”  My jaw dropped.  Not from the recognition of her face but at the words she spoke.  I looked around the room then back to her. 

"Where is the Sergeant, and why does he have these paintings?  Did you tell him of this event?"  She smiled.  I heard Eryn coming down from the hall. 

"Hey Sergeant, whoever your lady friend is could you tell her I had to borrow some...."  She froze as she walked into the room.  Her eyes beheld the majestic beauty of an angel.  White and blue wings were in full view tucked neatly on her back.  The beautiful craftsmanship of the armor radiated light.  The golden hair fell to her shoulders as if there had never been a hair out of place.  Her gaze fell to me, and she just stared.  Eryn stood transfixed.

"Would you like to tell me how you got that picture and where the Sergeant is?"  Again the smile.

"Tathlyn…she
is
the Sergeant," Eryn whispered, barely audible and full of awe.  She could not take her eyes off the angel and she walked slowly forward to gaze up at the majestic being towering over her close to my height.  Eryn did not speak a word... she simply hugged her.  Laughter rolled from my mouth at the sight of this.  I was sure it looked even funnier to them for me to be standing there naked.

"As I was saying, please forgive the web of deceit I had to weave to help guide you on your journey.  I imagine you have hundreds of questions, but first let us get some food.  I am famished.  Allow me to change back to something less shocking.”

There was no flash or dazzling; she shifted back to the form of the Sergeant and motioned us into the kitchen.  Her hand waived and the table filled with food.  A bundled item wrapped in burlap sat on the table chair closest to the door.  She walked over and picked it up. 

"But first, here are your clothes," she said.

"My clothes…you mean?  How did you get those?" 

She raised an eye brow as if she was saying, “Are you really going to doubt me now?"  I walked over thinking that she would be handing me a set of my big clothes from Eryn’s house.  As I undid the brown twine, a feeling of familiarity came over me and the desire to get into the wrapping was just like a present.  With two fingers the twine snapped.  The burlap fell away to reveal something I had just been thinking about a short time ago.  My armor was a gift from my teacher.  It looked brand new.  My loin cloth worn for all those years that I washed by hand several times a week was even there.  I held up the shirt admiring it as if it was new to me.

Eryn was at my side looking.  Her eyes were still wide with amazement while she munched on some carrots.  She was looking at the material and got lost in the pattern.  She reached out and touched it, not saying anything.  I stood there and let her look for a few minutes while she touched the foreign material, a mesmerized look on her face as she processed.

After a few moments, I leaned over, "Let me go put my clothes on so we can talk.  I'll be just a moment."  I left, finding the bathroom.  It was apparent how the bathroom gave away that a woman lived here.  It was full of fluffy things that gave definite proof of a lady’s presence.  The towels were all matching and fresh.  There were little soaps on the counter in a bowel.  It was obvious she did not need to wear real clothes because she seemed to be able to change her appearance, and the armor seemed to come and go on command, like my swords.

While dressing, the conversation was easy enough to follow. 

“Are you really an angel or is it some sort of illusion?”  Eryn’s voice said audible through the door. 

“I am an angel.”

“Why pose as a man.  I mean…why not just be you without wings?”  There was a pause.  I re-entered the room right at the end of the silence when the "Sergeant" began to reply.  

""My real name is Celuine.  I have been here for about five earth years.”  She turned towards me.  “My job was to help trigger your memories, Tathlyn.  Establishing myself as a police officer, I watched over you.  It made sense to join the police and eventually S.W.A.T. to prepare some men in the event we needed help.  An information leak allowed the church to send someone to be there to watch you when it was not possible for me to be there.  In time, I learned that someone within the church had taken a personal interest in you, and I traced the story back to a priest with a twin brother who was part of the Wiccan Coven.  He began to siphon information from his brother."

"I spent years putting out that fire and burying your unique problem under a mound of paperwork when I learned they were planning something.  They wanted to use the energy to create a psychic battery for their project.  I thought that they were trying to tap into higher levels of magic at first...then whispers in the covens suggested they wanted to create a gateway back to Salem.  The time right before the witch trials...to change the tide and if that was successful then the Spanish Inquisition was the next target.  They were so dedicated they did not care how it affected time.  Essentially time travel seemed to be silly as an attempt but they were supposedly going to try.  The priest that tried to kill you was the Wiccan brother.  He had already killed his own brother to take his place at the hospital when you were to wake from your coma.  They knew the day of your return.  His intent was not to kill you but to trigger the change that would increase your power.  They were going grab you after the funeral." 

"Somehow they knew that cyanide would not kill you, but it technically did.  So they could not take you from the graveyard.  My direct involvement started with being there waiting for you to awaken in the morgue where I put you while your body grew.  I had to keep you sedated with substances that you would not be able to find nor understand here on this planet.  I kept S.W.A.T close on maneuvers in case the coven made a move to try to grab you.  I did not plan on you taking out trained officers that easily, so I had to make it look believable when you were apprehended."

"I thought you might actually hide away at Eryn's, but instead you started going for runs in the park and saving young mothers from certain death.  It did not occur to me that you would confide in me if I started leaning on you about what was going on, and I had hoped that the Coven would lose track of you.  A tracking device put on Eryn's car reported to me her whereabouts but was set to notify me if you came near this address.  By the time I got here it was too late.  I was unable to enter, but I ran into that wizard outside.  They kicked him out of the coven, but he still kept tabs on them.  Apparently he disagreed with their goals."

"They made contact with daemons that tricked them into opening a portal so they could mount a full invasion force.  Daemons told them to lure you here and use your power to open a portal.  You walked right in the front door and handed yourself to them before you were ready.  They knew when and where you would be there so they started the ritual knowing the exact moment of your arrival.  It is all in that tome.  I glanced while waiting for you to free yourself."

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow.  This all fit together way too nice, for it not to be true.  Had I known, I would have not gone there.  This event is what triggered my memory and brought me to unity.  Had Celuine not helped me change, things would have been much worse.  I looked over at her standing there stoic but in her Sergeant form.  There was no expression on her face as she spoke.  It was all factual.  Emotions did not burden angels, but a struggle was apparent. 

"It appears I owe you my life in spite of all the underhanded efforts."

She shook her head and a hint of the emotion came through.  I looked at Eryn.  Her eyes fixed on me.  She was unconscious inside the glade before the attack happened, and I could feel the questions inside her growing, but she remained silent.  She was a sponge right now.  After a moment of silence or two, I looked at Celuine.  This affected her.  I did not know why. 

Eryn Finally broke her Silence.  She looked right at me and had a very quizzical look on her face.  I had no idea what she was thinking when she finally spoke.  I did not even think to discuss what what happened in the glade, but realized that the unanswered question was in the room now.

"So what happened in there Tathlyn?" she probed, a very stern look in her eye, like I had dragged her into something.

"Well, the ceremony was in full swing when we walked in.  They did something to us which knocked you out but held me in place.  They drained my life force through my blood, to power their spell to open a portal on this side while I could not move.  That explained why I was so weak and had difficulties recovering.  I was low on blood.  I did not even know that is what they were doing.”

"When the portal came into existence, they had a coven member ready to leave," Celuine interjected.  "That's in the book, too."

"When the portal opened, a swarm of daemons poured through.  I could not move until the daemons killed the three creatures subduing me, so I could defend you.  That is when the ex-Wiccan member Sigvard came in and shielded you while I started killing daemons."

"With the swords you can summon?”  Eryn asked.

"Yes.  I did not have this armor, though, which would have helped in that last fight." 

Eryn nodded.  She was following quite well.

"I was killing the daemons as they poured through but not fast enough.  My memory still held me back for it did not return yet, so I had no idea I could close that portal.  I just knew it needed to be done somehow."

"You can do that?"

"Yes, it is part of my skill set.  I fought and killed Amduscias when entered the area, but he gravely wounded me.  He almost won."  Celuine's eyes widened.  She lost all composure and shifted back to her angelic form.

"Wait...you killed Amduscias?" she added with clear emotion in her voice now.  Her head shook in disbelief.

"Who is that?"  Eryn asked.

"Lucifer’s son,” I responded looking her in the eyes.

"Not just Lucifer's son.  He was a high level daemon," said Celuine.

"
Thee
Lucifer?" she said.

"Yes.  He was about twenty feet tall with a wingspan about twice as wide.  He was very formidable.  I have faced him twice.  Each time he has technically killed me."  Eryn's face went white.  The mental and emotional impact of hearing this had to be hard.  She started to shake and I placed my arm around her until she stopped, trying to soothe her.  “When he died, his head changed to its original form…A unicorn head.  It was rather disturbing.”

“That is disturbing indeed,” commented Celuine.  My comment about the daemon prince’s head went right over Eryn’s head.

"So you have died three times then?" she finally asked with a sad look on her face.  I did not respond right away and she looked right at me.  "How many?"

"Four that I can remember."  Her head shook in disbelief.  I stopped and just held her.  Celuine looked at me patiently and waited for me to continue.  It took a moment for the words to sink in before she sighed. 

"I fought the daemon prince to a standstill on the first exchange.  The second part of that fight, he pulled a move that impaled me and gloated as I was dying.  The Wiccan outcast got the daemon’s attention long enough for me to heal.  I reengaged the daemon prince but not before he took the outcast down.  We then fought for several more minutes.  He managed to poison me at some point, and I cut off one of his poison glands."