The Watchers Wake

Chapter 25 - The Deal

CHAPTER 25 - The Deal

Jari looked at me.  We were alone in his office.

“I wanted to tell you so many times but I couldn’t risk it.  Some things are more important than the truth.” He gave a small half shrug as he moved to the sofa and sat next to me, “If I had told you everything would have changed – your attitude to me and your priorities.  Your future is too important.”

“My future?  What about Mum, did she recognise you for who you are?”

“Ahh, that’s the next thing.” He wrapped an arm around me and gently kissed me on the forehead.  “This is going to be difficult to hear.  Eveline isn’t your Mother.  Eveline was a guardian angel but she has gone off the rails, a little.”

“Off the rails?  A little?  You think?” He cringed at me apologetically as I shook my head to clear the anger away.  I didn’t want to start a shouting match with him over the inadequacies of  Mum, I mean Eveline.  No there were more important things.

 “Where is my Mother then?”  I looked around the office almost like I was half expecting her to be hiding behind some random piece of furniture.

"That is a long story and not one for today,” Jari closed his eyes and turned from me.  “But I can tell you this much.  I had three months with your Mother and I loved her more than I ever thought possible.  It was love at first sight and we were inseparable.  I broke all the rules for her.  That’s why Adam isn’t fond of me.  I made a real mess of everything when I tried to stay with her.”

“I really loved her and I fought for her Natalie.   I trusted her with all of me and I gave her everything I had to give.  I told her the full ugly truth and she still loved me.  Her love was so absolute it melted my heart.  It was the happiest time of my long existence.  But it was too short.” 

“I think that she must have found out that she was pregnant just before I was discovered and dragged away.  She knew that it was likely that I couldn’t, that I wouldn’t be able to be there, so she didn’t tell me about you.   I was so wound up in my love for her and my schemes to stay with her that I didn’t see it.  I think that she knew it would cause me even more pain, when I was eventually found, if she told me about the pregnancy.  She knew, just as I did, that I wouldn’t be successful in avoiding my fate.”  

“But Natalie there was... it just all went wrong.  They managed to save you but Grace died.” A single tear slid down his cheek and he turned away. 

“What went wrong?  I don’t understand.”

“It is not for you to know, I can’t ... I can’t tell you.  Maybe one day,” he smiled but his eyes showed his deep pain.  “I had to collect her and take her soul away.  We clung to you for as long as we could before we were both forced away, me to do my duty and Grace, well I made sure that she is in a good place.  I visit her when I can and I take her news of you.”  He paused, handed me a box of tissues and pulled me into his embrace, kissing my forehead as he did.

“Grace had no relatives that were suitable to raise you so we placed Eveline.  At the time she was happy with the assignment but the limitations she is placed under, to prevent our fate, have made her bitter.  She will not be there when you return.  She allowed two of the brood access to you.  She will be punished for her failure.”

“But what will happen to me?”

“You can stay where you are if you want.  The house is ours and we would continue to support you, of course.”

“What do you mean ‘we’? Who are you Jari?  The receptionist called you an Archangel?”

“Yeah.  Strangely enough some of us are still Archangels.  Archangels were each created to fill a role and since we have fallen our positions have become even more pertinent.  Ironic really, as a direct consequence of falling we have become more necessary.” He laughed a bitter laugh.