Veiled (14 page)

Katie was clearly
fascinated and tried to strike up a conversation with all of
them—the animals that is. Sometimes she looked quite ridiculous as
she translated what the animals were saying to her, yet I seemed to
be the only one who was particularly annoyed by her.

Everyone kept instinctively
out of my way and in part I liked it. I didn’t feel like being
social and only stayed out of duty. But as soon as the Third Day of
creation was announced and my whole clan turned excitedly toward
space to watch. I took off in a different direction.

I gave one last look at the
retreating forms of my clan members as they flew together, and only
one lonely figure stood looking back at me.

So…he still knows I
exist!
I thought with contempt.

He only lingered for a
moment before he turned and glided back to Dane, Valerie, and
yes…Katie’s side.

Forget this!
I thought and flew due west to the coast. I
passed the whole area where all the animals were and I found the
ocean. Even from above it looked enormous. I lowered myself down so
as to be level with the water.
I wonder
what it would feel like to be under it,
I
thought. Then I willed myself down. It was hard going down feet
first, so I turned and dug my way down head first. There was an
actual resistance in this, and it was the closest thing to feeling
something other than emotional feelings.

The ocean floor was quite a
ways down, and on my way there I encountered several interesting
creatures. Some didn’t look welcoming at all and tried to entangle
themselves with me, but I was not in the mood for fraternizing, so
they too left me alone after some time.

Once at the bottom, I
wandered along the ocean floor, first exploring it, then trying
hard not to think, and finally relenting and allowing the seaweeds
and the fish to tangle themselves in me and my long
hair.

The Third Day of creation
was well spent, I thought, in complete oblivion. My motto for that
day was forget, forget, forget. I simply existed in my new watery
surroundings and buried all my thoughts in the sand—after all, life
would happen as it would happen, and no amount of my stressing over
it would change it.

By the Fourth Day of
creation, I was bored, so as I listened to the creation of all the
plant life through the link, I thought about all the beautiful
flowers and plants that I would smell someday—and that’s when I
took a turn for the worse. I grew desperate and hardly knew why.
Here I was, lonely, miserable, and bitter, hiding from life, my
future, and my friends.

I mustered some courage and
looked within. My aura was unrecognizable. I no longer remembered
what had brought me here and why I was hiding. It all seemed so
stupid.

I hit an ultimate low
sometime between the Fourth and Fifth Day of creation. That was
when I realized that I really hated myself. I didn’t even know who
I was anymore and why I was such a coward. During the course of the
Sixth Day, I knew that if I didn’t face my fears and get out of
this place I would forever remain loathsome to myself. And if I
didn’t pick myself up and move forward I would become—as Alex had
so well put it—my own worst enemy, if I already wasn’t
so.

In one swift movement I
rose up from my dark abyss and made my way up to the
surface.

“
Wow! Where did you just
come from?” A surprised voice greeted me from the surface once my
head was out of the water.

Confused I looked around,
only to see three spirits who had taken off their robes and were
wearing some sort of makeshift undergarment, and currently were
resting on the surface of the water on elongated, oval shaped
boards.

“
The bottom,” I
responded.

“
Is it cool down there?”
one of them asked with marked interest, while the other two seemed
more concerned with something they saw on the horizon.

“
I guess so,” I told
him.

“
I’ll have to check that
out.”

“
It’s coming, it’s
coming!” one of the other spirits warned, and they crouched down on
the boards and looked ready for something.

“
Later!” the first spirit
said as, he too, crouched on his board. I turned and saw a huge
wave coming. I got out of their way, just in time to avoid getting
ran over by their boards that were propelled forward by the force
of the wave.

Once out of their way I
turned toward the beach. On the shore I could see a distant figure
standing perfectly still, facing me. The figure looked tall and
lean but most importantly it glowed with the most beautiful golden
light.

It was Alex.

The wave pushed me forward
and gently deposited my feet onto the sandy shore, before it
receded again. I stood there looking at him, with a complete lack
for words. He looked like a shining beacon guiding me home. The
light he emitted reminded me of the rays that filtered through the
water, piercing the darkness of the deep. His light was doing the
same to me, each strand of his light stabbed at the darkness in my
soul. He looked beautiful, body and soul. Why hadn’t I seen that
before? It seemed to me now as if I had seen it all along, but only
now did I recognize it for what it was—my home.

An unseen force pulled me
toward him, his warmth and his light seemed indispensable to me
now. His light encircled me and filled me with unspeakable joy and
love, smoldering the memories of those screams from the miserable
banished souls, and the paralyzing fear that the Second One had
implanted in me.

I stopped right in front of
him and stared, trying to understand the changes that my heart was
undergoing. When his light had swelled to fill my whole frame, the
words “I love you” spilled out unknowingly…yet I meant them. I knew
then that I really meant them.

Something passed through
his face. Relief, doubt…

“
Like a brother?” he asked
with a wry look.

I shook my head, still
astonished at what my heart was telling me.

“…
a cousin
then.”

I smiled and still shook my
head.

“…
a grandfather
perhaps?”

I punched him in the
stomach and he grabbed my fist, then gently untangled my fingers
and laced his own through them. He raised my hand to his lips and
kissed it. I came closer to him, and he lifted my hair away from my
neck. He then moved in closer and softly kissed my neck.

Now I knew I wanted life.
More than ever I wanted to know what a kiss like that would feel
like. I wanted real skin. I wanted the sense of touch and a
heartbeat. He moved in even closer, and rested the corner of his
mouth against the side of my mouth. An unspeakable happiness ran
through my frame, almost physical in nature. All I cared about now
was him, and the only thought I could hold onto was the maddening
desire to feel the lips that were next to mine—and I would endure
anything for it.

“
I knew you’d come
around,” he whispered, still not moving from the spot.

“
How long have you been
here?”

“
I came looking for you as
soon as I realized you didn’t come to the Third Day of creation,”
he said, as his lips brushed against mine.

“
You knew this whole time
I was down there?” I asked with awe.

He didn’t answer, but I
knew he had known and had waited for me on that beach, hoping that
I would resolve my own issues and come to him.

“
I’m sorry
for…everything,” I said lamely, knowing that my behavior had been
inexcusable.

He pulled away and looked
intently into my eyes. “It brought you where you are now, so it was
worth it. We’ll always be together, Tess, and whatever happens,
will happen to us.” He said it with certainty and I knew that he
meant it. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but a new clarity came over me.
His thoughts seemed to float to me and I understood him
perfectly—all his anxiety over me, the love he felt for me, and the
determination he had in sticking by my side. He really was willing
to endure any kind of torment or difficulty that the Second One
would care to inflict upon us.

All along he had known
exactly what my greatest fears were and how much pain I was in. But
he also knew that I had to face these issues on my own. He hoped
all along that in the end I would come to him; though he wasn’t
sure it would happen, and for a while there he almost lost
hope.

But amid the immense joy I
felt right now, I couldn’t help feeling a tinge of sadness for the
grim plight in which I had placed us both. Unfortunately, in
aligning himself to me, he had placed himself in the direct line of
fire. His life would be affected by our love and he knew it—and
didn’t care.

“
I love you,” I told him
again, this time, meaning so much more. I threw myself in his arms,
he pulled me in tight and I was home.

* * * * *

Chapter 12

“
Now that there is human
life on Earth, everyone is celebrating,” Alex said casually as he
tangled his fingertips with my own.

We had been lying on the
sand looking up at the sky and the occasional bird that flew by. We
were silent for long periods of time but the silence was not
uncomfortable, it was filled with the bliss and dreams of the
future.

Now and then he would slide
his fingers up my arm and I felt an inexplicable mixture of joy and
frustration, Physical feeling seemed so necessary to me right now.
This happiness mingled with this dissatisfaction was to be our new
way of existence, but we found comfort in the thought that
someday…we would feel…someday we would be able to bridge that
gap.

“
Huh?” I said
absentmindedly.

“
I said that everyone is
probably having a party.”

“
Still?”

“
Probably.”

I turned to face him. “Are
we soul mates?”

He smiled and stroked my
face with the back of his hand. “I’m sure of it.”

“
So…do you think the
Eternals would keep that in mind when they send us
down?”

His face remained smiling,
but I could tell that he was weighing his words carefully. “I hope
they do. I have a feeling that the Eternals would never allow us to
be anything but mates.”

“
What makes you so
sure?”

“
Feelings this strong
don’t just disappear because we lose our memories. They go deeper
than that, they become part of who we are. A soul mate’s bond
entrenches itself in the very makeup of the being. It becomes part
of who we are.”

“
And we are soul mates,” I
reiterated to make the fact final and definite to the
Eternals.

“
We sure are.” He kissed
me again.

“
Tell me about
Katie.”

He laughed and I noticed
for the first time why I liked his smile so much. He had dimples on
both sides of his mouth when he laughed.

“
What about
Katie?”

I frowned. “You know…why do
you like her so much?”

“
She’s nice.” He shrugged,
clearly enjoying my jealousy.

I gave him a warning
look.

“
You would like her too,
if you gave her a chance,” he continued.

“
But I want to know what
made you so fond of her all of a sudden?”

“
Tess…” he said, shaking
his head. “She’s like a sister to me.”

I had to admit I felt a
huge relief come over me. “And she thinks of you as a
brother?”

He nodded.

“
Then I hope she turns out
to be my sister instead, because watching her talk to animals is
very entertaining. A lifetime of that has got to be
interesting.”

“
My thoughts exactly!” he
said, laughing heartily. “You know, Tess, she’s been feeling sad
about you not liking her. You really do need to give her a chance.
You would love her, too.”

As we talked our fingers
interlaced and I could see my inner aura changing right before my
eyes. Our outer auras were the same color, a vibrant, passionate
red.

We talked and talked like
we never had before. Our conversation covered all topics, from
Katie’s abilities, to our own, and the rest of the clan. Then we
talked about my fears about the Veiling, and Agatha’s relentless
desire to make my life miserable. Then we talked about our training
and the classes we wanted to take.

By now the guys with the
boards had their fill of balancing themselves on them, and were now
changing back into their robes and I was starting to feel like we
were wasting time.

“
How long in Earth’s time
do you think we’ve been here?” I asked.

“
Henry explained it to me
after the First Day. But I’m not sure I quite got it,” Alex
admitted.

To us time was a new
concept. We didn’t measure time, we just existed. So learning about
linear time was hard to grasp. It was essential to our preparation
and only now that I had a reason for living did I care to
learn.