Dark One- The Khiara Banning Series Book 1

Twenty five

“What exactly happened?” I ask, looking between Jack and my mother, who is standing next to him.

“They were attacked,” she says, “and sought shelter here. I sensed something was off, and didn’t want to subject you to it before I knew myself. I can’t believe the mess you’re in…well I can,” she sighs, “I just don’t want to.”

Samael stirs, and the whole room goes silent; nobody breathes. “Christ,” she says, “Lisa stop crying, you’re killing my head!”

She blinks at the room for a second, before realizing the situation. “Oh,” she says. “Yes, um…”

Lisa launches herself at her mother in lightning speed. “Mom!”

“Hey there, kiddo.” She says, enveloping her in a hug. Samael is Cael’s spitting image besides the hair colour difference, though she appears older than him by at least a decade.

“I’m not dead,” she says. “But I would have been, if not for the wonderful man over there.” She points towards Jack. “You should thank him. He saved my life.” She says, and then turns to me, a radiant smile on her face. “Ah, finally we meet. I suspect you’ll meet my brother soon. It’s not every day that one of the Fallen is appointed as a Guardian, let alone over the soul they Fell for in the first place.”

I gulp. She doesn’t know…

Samael frowns, reading my facial expression. “Oh,” she says, and then looks at the spot where my necklace should be, like Jack did. “What happened? I’ve been gone for quite some time. I enchanted the necklace as a gift to help protect you while your soul awakens, but I didn’t know that Cam was no longer your Guardian…he interfered when it wasn’t time, didn’t he?”

“They’re a couple now,” says Lisa, beaming. “They kiss like, all the time. It’s nauseatingly adorable.”

Whatever response I was expecting from her, it wasn’t the one she gives. Samael bursts into laughter, the sound like tinkling bells. “I can’t believe it,” she says. “That’s impossible!”

She looks me over then, laughing even harder. “You haven’t even awakened yet, have you? Oh my God, this is brilliant. We’re all potentially screwed, but this is brilliant!”

Lisa rolls her eyes, used to her mother’s attitude. “We’ve been training her, Mom. Me, Dad, Verchiel, her Faen friend Cara and her boyfriend Tristan – he’s Nephilim too. It’s been going well.”

Samael is still laughing, though. “I can’t,” she says, “this is fucking brilliant! Salvation is in the form of a teenaged human girl who knows next to nothing about what she’s getting in to, and her magical posse of misfit toys. I couldn’t have written a better plot line for a book than that!”

“Brilliant,” says Mom, a smirk on her face.

Suddenly, my cellphone rings and everybody’s attention is drawn to me. I gulp. It’s Cael’s ringtone.

“Hi,” he says when I answer. “I just finished work. How’s studying with Lisa?”

“Cael,” I say slowly, “you need to come over.”

“What’s wrong?” his voice holds nothing but concern.

“Just trust me,” I say, looking at Samael. “You’re gonna want to be here. While you’re at it, get Cara and Tristan to come with you.”

~*~

Everybody is sitting in the living room, sipping tea as if it was a formal affair, and I’d laugh if it weren’t such a confusing situation. I’m able to fill my parents in on everything that’s going on, though they’re only mildly surprised and take everything in stride.

It also turns out that the people who attacked Samael and Jack were Douma’s minions, so to speak. Jack had broken Samael out of their custody three months ago, and they’d been on the run ever since, trying to get back here. They got here the day I received my necklace; Jack has passed it along to a friend who was passing through town and owed him a favour, and he’d put it in my locker. They’d been in hiding ever since, trying to lay low before making contact with anybody.

Disturbingly, he was not the reason my locker had been opened the other times. Everybody suspects that it was Douma.

Liam arrives around twenty minutes before Cael, Vicky in tow holding a very sleepy Sam, and the reunion between the family is heart-warming.

Vicky stands back as Lisa, a very groggy Sam, Liam and Samael embrace each other; no doubt thinking of her own children, but there’s a small smile on her face as she watches them.

“Morrigan…” whispers Dad, as the reunion goes on. “Morgan…Mon Dieu! It makes sense, now. The nurse that named you? She must have been that Goddess. I suppose she didn’t actually wish you harm or we would never have let you near her.”

“Funny way of showing it,” I say. “Cursing me and whatnot.”

Jack shrugs and makes a vague gesture with both his hands. “The lesser Gods and Goddesses are strange creatures.”

Samael, who has her son curled on her lap like a puppy, rolls her eyes. “As is Yahweh. As are we all. Right Sam?”

Sam nods his little head. “Mmhmm. Everyone’s strange, but that’s okay,” he says, “but I like Khiara. She’s not very strange.”

The doorbell rings then, and Cara shoves her way inside. “So where’s the party at?” she says loudly, chewing gum like it’s her job.

When nobody answers, she takes in the state of the room, and frowns. “Oh…so like, Cael’s gonna pass the fuck out when he sees this shit,” she states.

“I’m gonna what?” asks Cael from behind her, laughter in his voice from some conversation they probably had in the car. He pushes past her into the house, surveys the scene, and drops right to his knees. Instantly his hands find his hair.

 It begins to hail, and Tristan swears from just outside the door. “Guys, it is freezing out th–” he walks in and looks at Cael, who is just staring his sister, his face a mask of many different emotions.

“Little brother,” says Samael. “My, what an interesting mess you’ve caused by interfering. But, I believe it is the way it was always meant to be. I suspect your meddling is the reason I am alive today.”

“Fate will do what she will,” my mother says, nodding her head.

“And love can transcend,” says Samael, looking between Cael and me. “And boy, is this a love for the story books.”

Cael just continues to stare, stunned. In the back of my mind, our connection is buzzing, but it feels faint. I realize it’s because there’s almost nothing running through his mind.

“What’s the matter Uncle Cam?” asks Sam. “You missed Mommy, didn’t you?”

And he’s crying. Not the subtle, quiet kind. These are the kind of tears you’d only want to cry in private, where your nose is running, you make those awful distorted faces and when you try to speak, it comes out as nothing more than a whimper and drool. These are the sobs of somebody who has been through too much.

They pierce my soul, and I openly weep with him, because his pain needs to be shared.

In that moment, I don’t believe I have ever found him more beautiful, because in the middle of a room full of people, he bares his soul for all to see.

 And nobody dares judge him.