Marked for Vengeance (36 page)

Her finger
tapped against her lips as she headed for the opening. “Oh yeah, and I also
need to get a fresh dressing of Comfrey Poultice,” she muttered to herself.

“Of
what?
”

She turned once
she had made it through. “Comfrey Poltice, it disinfects the wound and eases
pain. Don’t worry about all of this, though. Dr. Wu’s
very
good at what
he does,” she said and melted into the night.

When she
disappeared, Isaac rolled his eyes.
I wish I could just get some morphine,
or even a couple of Advil.

* * *

Oman extended
his arm toward Jeremiah. “Our next human is one of our two prophets. Will you
please make your way up here, Jeremiah?”

Two prophets?
Remarkable.

The tall man sauntered
onto the stage with his arms swinging wide and reached for Oman. They embraced,
patting each other’s backs, and he faced the audience. “Hello, all,” he said
with his hands pressed together in front of his chest.

Alyx glanced at
the Elders and Spirit Guides as Jeremiah greeted the audience. They all smiled
at him with adoration.
He has them wrapped,
she thought.

“It’s nice to
finally gather together and meet one another. Like Oman said, I am a prophet. I
see visions while awake, almost like in a daydream, but can only see as far as
two days ahead. I’ve had a few come to me already, and I can’t wait to work
with Oman and utilize the infinite wisdom he will undoubtedly bestow upon me.

Alyx wanted to
gag and tried incredibly hard not to roll her eyes.

“That is all I
have to say at present. I am unable to share any of the visions I receive,
except directly with Oman.”

“Is there a reason
for that?” Dr. Wu asked, shooting his hand through the air at the last minute, “I
believe we should all be informed of what’s going on.”

Jeremiah’s head
jerked back. “I, um-

“This was a rule
that
I
implemented,” Oman replied. “And for a very important reason.
Everyone’s visions can be interpreted many ways, but this happens to be my
specialty so I will be the only one to help them. If this is handled any other
way, we might have twenty different theories or interpretations out there that
will only confuse, and then eminently, slow us down further.”

Dr. Wu nodded
his thanks.

Oman touched
Jeremiah’s shoulder and waved toward the stairs. “You may return to your seat.”

The old man
watched to make sure he safely made it off of the platform and faced the
audience. “We also have one other prophet with us. His name is Isaac. He was
the one who was hurt on his journey and cannot attend tonight. 

Everyone’s eyes
wandered to Alyx, and her eyes shot to her lap.

“But his
presence here is incredibly important, perhaps more so than any other human.
Only because we can compare both his and Jeremiah’s visions and find
similarities. This will give me a clearer read on future events.

“I will now ask
Dr. Wu to retire back to his patient so he can continue to work on him. We ask
that you say your prayers and send positive thoughts his way.

“Thank you,” Dr.
Wu said and shot off of the bench.

“For those of
you who don’t know, Dr. Wu is a holistic doctor. We are pleased to have him
here. Now,” he said, extending both of his arms toward the large man in the
back, “its time to introduce Yuri.” Oman returned to his spot beside Malachai,
who moved into his place.

With the mention
of his name, Yuri’s head snapped up, and he frowned as the crowd turned to
observe him.

“Please, come
join us up here,” Malachai insisted.

“I don’t want
to,” he huffed.

Everyone’s eyes
widened, and they spun back around. The Elders leaned into each other’s ears
and whispered.

 Malachai’s
expression softened. “I beg of you, Yuri. Please, come tell them of your
extraordinary gift.”

The Russian man stared
back at him defiantly and stood with clinched fists. “I said not today,” he
said stiffly and made his way for the tents.

“Are you just
going to let him
leave?”
Prolificent gasped.

Malachai watched
as Yuri left. “Since he does not wish to speak, I will in his stead.

Prolificent
threw up his hands in frustration.

“Yuri has the
gift of tongues. He can decipher, through layers upon layers of dimensions,
what a spirit says in any language.”

Jeremiah raised
his hand. “He’s a medium?”

“Incredibly
similar. He will be working with me, but his gift is already so advanced, there
won’t be much training needed on his part.”

Natalia’s doll-like
hand rose into the air. “Does this mean, then, that the humans will come into
contact with these beasts?”

“Very intuitive,
my dear, but we aren’t sure what the future holds.  We can’t discount that it
is a possibility.”

After hearing
how similar Natalia’s and Yuri’s accents were, Alyx made the connection that he
was her former Marked. Even though Natalia’s draw wasn’t bound to him anymore,
she still felt protective of him. Alyx liked her even more already.

“I think that
concludes our introductions of the humans in attendance,” Malachai continued.
“But we do have three more that I haven’t mentioned. One is Julie who is a
nurse and was watching over Isaac while the Doctor attended the meeting. The
other is Micah. He is the youngest of us at the age of thirteen, and I request
that everyone show him special favor in that regard. He will also be working
with me and is the one with the gift of ‘spiritual eyesight’ as we mentioned
earlier. He can see entities in the other dimensions. As you can guess, he’s
had a hard time adjusting to the recent changes in environment. Luckily, his
father Isaac is here as well, so he is not without a parental figure. But let’s
make sure we lift him up in your thoughts and prayers also.

Everyone nodded
fervently.

But how is it that
Micah can see them clearer than WE could
, Alyx wondered, and her hand shot up
from the back of the crowd.

“Yes, my child.”

“How is it that
he can see these beings better than us?”

“Well, for one,
he is a human. He is not a pure entity like us. As mentioned before, these
beasts’ wickedness prevents
us
from seeing them, but because the Creator
gifted Micah with this divine talent and he was born into sin, he is able to
see them more clearly.”

Makes sense.
“Thank you.”

“And last but not
least is Lumen. She did not wish to join us tonight, but has the gift of
reading auras. She will help us determine the state of every human’s gift, if
they’ve made progress and matured, and if they’ve regressed. This will prove
most helpful during our training, but she is incredibly shy. I’m not sure when
you’ll be able to meet her.”

Prolificent shot
Diamort a disgusted glare.

Don’t ever miss
a meeting
,
Alyx reminded herself.
Or forget my robe.

* * *

Julie hadn’t
returned, and Isaac thought about drifting into another slumber to avoid
drinking the tea she would ultimately bring back with her. A shadow approached
the tent from the outside, and he closed his eyes to pretend.

He expected to
hear Julie’s footsteps patter across the grass inside the tent, but her feet
stopped at the threshold.

A whispering
voice rolled through the air. “Quien es este?”

Isaac opened one
eye and peered across the tent.
Julie?
A bony woman with sunken eyes and
long, gray hair stood in the doorway. She took a small step, and her worn,
patchwork skirt dusted the tops of her bare feet. “Se han visto ensombrecidos,”
she muttered and pointed her emaciated finger toward him.

He pinched his
eyelids tighter.
What the hell?

She continued
whispering in Spanish as her footsteps approached him, but Isaac didn’t fear
the old lady. She seemed harmless. Crazy maybe, but harmless all the same.

Smack! Her hands
clapped together, and his eyes flew open. “Despertarse!” she yelled.

Her eyes widened
as they locked to Isaac’s. “Si, Se han visto ensombrecidos,” she repeated and
turned on her heels to flee the tent, leaving a behind a sense of
unease.                                                            

* * *

Despite the
small twinkling of hope from learning of the humans’ gifts, the mood around the
gathering place had slowly grown glum. Up until this very hour, nobody had
fathomed just how improbable their chances were at being victorious. After all,
they had the Creator on their side. And while that was still true, it never
crossed their minds that
His
powers would be limited in this battle to retain
the human souls. It was possible for the invaders to be the victors, after all.
Very possible. The Creator had lost two other planets to them, as well.

“Now that we are
here, the next stage will be training,” Malachai continued. “Tonight we will
rest, but will gather again in the morning.”

He turned to
face the Protectors. “Protectors, you will train tomorrow with your Elders, as
well as meet your Warriors. The rest of us will work with the humans to perfect
their gifts. And we all will work together as a
team
,” he said with his
arms stretched wide, attempting to turn the morale around, “it is of the upmost
importance that we approach the battlefield with everything needed
strategically. We all have grueling days of training ahead of us. Let’s make
the best of them.”

“Yes!” Oman
said, echoing his budding enthusiasm, “the tighter we are as an army, the
better our chances. As you can well imagine by what has been said here today,
these detestable beings are ruthless and are void of compassion for any living
being. To them, humans are nothing more than living containers for the souls
they want to attain. What makes them a formidable enemy is that, on top of
those things, they are organized, aggressive, and uncompromising.”

“And so we must
be!” Diamort jumped in. “Yes, we must never forget the lives that were taken. But
this is also a time to focus, to harness the rage that the grief will
ultimately bring forth and use it against them.”

“Our divine
instincts
will
prevail, because they must,” Oman added. “Let’s keep that
in the forefront of our minds during this journey.”

Everyone in the
crowd stood to their feet with applause. Their leadership clapped along with
them, smiling and nodding.

Thank you,
Malachai,
Alyx thought.

When the ovation
died down, Prolificent flicked his robe away from his feet and marched to the
center of the stage. “There are a few rules that we need to make sure are
observed and followed,” he said, and everyone rested on the benches.

Oman rolled his
eyes, and Alyx bit her lip to keep from smiling. His irritation with her Elder
amused her now for some reason – probably because his rigid ways began to
irritate
her
.

“The humans are
to stay separate from the Protectors and Warriors. The only time we allow
mingling is during the gatherings. We will have another one tomorrow night at a
feast for the humans.

With the mention
of a feast, Alyx’s stomach rolled with hunger. She sucked in a breath and
pressed her hand into it to prevent a growl, giving away that she was different
from the others. As the Elders had explained to the Protectors that afternoon,
hunger, thirst, and sleep were supposedly no longer needed, and Alyx still had
no clue how to hide the fact that all of her human needs still remained.

“Also, make sure
that anytime we have a formal meeting or feast you wear your assigned robes.
And as a parting note, we wouldn’t be able to maintain the camps and feed the
humans without proper help. We have a few servants on site to help with cooking
and maintenance. Please make sure to greet and treat them kindly. If nobody has
any more questions or anything to add, we will bring this meeting to a close
and retire to our camps for the night.”

Everyone looked
around the quiet gathering place, and no hands rose into the air.

“Thank you all
for coming. You are now dismissed.”

The Protectors immediately
broke into their groups again, and the only two humans left, Atticus and
Jeremiah, retired back to their tents.

“If you want to
hang around, I’ll be ok,” Alyx assured Cindra who watched Willow and Serena
chat by one of the flickering torches. “I think I’ll head back now.”

“You sure? I
don’t mind coming with you.”

“I’m sure. See
you up there.”

Cindra flung her
arms around her neck. “Ok, see you up there.”

* * *

The tent never
felt emptier.
It must take a long time to brew that awful tea,
Isaac
thought as impatience set in. At least when he was asleep he didn’t know the
difference between being alone and someone sitting by his side, but he wasn’t
the least bit tired now. Even if he were, he didn’t want to drift off after the
strange visit from the crazy woman.