An Angel's Ascent (24 page)

I followed him to a corner.

“
I wanted to show you some things that may be helpful to you now that all of this is happening,” he told me quietly.

I paid close attention as he instructed me on deep meditation. I had learned the minor steps in his class, but I never continued with it.

We worked on several more things over the next three hours, and then decided that a break was necessary. Switch went back to town for a few things and said he would be back before dawn.

I showed my master the workout I had constructed, and he pointed out ways that would draw more benefits. Four a.m. came and I decided to shower while Aries talked to Sen.

I think he wanted to learn too, which was good I thought.

I climbed straight in bed when I came from the shower and pulled an extra quilt over me. It was twenty-six degrees outside, clear but windy. I had to upgrade from tank top to long sleeve shirt. Aries stayed down stairs until Switch got back, by that time I was asleep.

Over the next few days, I practiced my fire powers and by accident tapped into another.

Lightening split a poor tree right down the middle. Flames tried to finish what I started, but I called to the fire, calming it. Within three days, I could completely control fire, manage to call lightening on demand, and had dropped my master once. He taught me special moves meant only for high masters such as him.

“
At this rate Angel, you’ll be too far advanced for me to train you within a few more days.”

“
You are coming to the island?” I asked.

“
Yes, but I will not stay.”

“
Why?!” I asked.

“
My time is close. I came. I taught. I perfected. And now very soon I’ll be able to find peace. There will be many people on your island, and I don’t wish to take up someone else’s spot.”

“
How long?” I asked, tears in my eyes.

“
When Kali comes.”

“
She won’t be born for another year, I’m waiting.”

“
No, as soon as you get to the island you’ll couple with your man. I see how he is with you. You mean more to him than anything he could ever dream of. He has waited a long time for you and it would be inhumane to make him suffer. Your island will be ready way before Kali comes. The waiting will be the hardest. I’ll train as many as I can so that when the evil ones come they can protect themselves. They won't be ready, but they’ll be able to defend themselves well.”

I cried at this and felt Sen put an arm loosely around my shoulders.

“
You’ll be ready to save them all. You will protect your flock but as a precaution and a gift I will train as many as I can. You must continue my work so that the next generation will be strong.”

I would miss this old man. If I could claim anyone as a father it would be him, he had given me so much. Training to care for myself and never show signs of weakness. Like how to cope with the changes going on and still strive forward each day with purpose, so that I could fulfill my goals. Things would not be the same without him. He may’ve been on this earth for a long time, but not nearly long enough in my life. I wanted twenty or forty more years with him. He was immortal for crying out loud. I’d make him her godfather I decided.

I nodded and headed back inside to shower and think. I realized a lot of people would leave me if I became immortal. Something I was not ready to deal with just yet.

“
What’s wrong?” Aries asked coming in the room when I didn’t come out.

“
I’m just thinking. How can you stand to see those you care for die and you never grow older?”

“
It’s hard at first, but eventually you learn to let go. Family goes first and friends, so by the time you make new ones your heart has grown hard. You learn to live with the grief, or it will consume you. I think that’s what happened to Harden. He gave up and started breaking rules left and right. It was about a year after his son died. He couldn’t live with it.”

I nodded and let him hold me. I felt like I was turning into someone else. I’d never felt close to people. I’d kept them all at a distance, knowing someday they would hurt me, but somehow when I wasn’t looking they had crept in stealing pieces of my heart. I guess that’s how true friends are. Raven was a sister to me, as Sen was the father. I’d never had a mother and never would. She’d always and forever be lost to me. Thinking that made my heart hurt, causing sobs to leak out.

It wasn’t long before Aries gentle consoling had calmed me enough to speak again.

“
Can you ask Switch to bring Chinese? I don’t think I will get much after we move there.”

“
Yep, anything you want.”

“
I'm going to miss so much, like our little social networks and their apps.” Wow I was thinking of such insignificant things right now.

“
Well internet, if you have access that is, will still be out there as long as there are satellites in the sky. Eventually there won't be much information except what’s already out there, so it’ll be obsolete in time, like cars will be next year. With no one running the sites, it will eventually cease to exist. If it’s a program, there will be no maintenance, so with time they will all crash.”

I decided to take a nap until dusk again. Already my schedule was changing to accommodate them, my vampires. It also felt like I was sleeping a lot, but I was really only getting naps throughout the day, two here and three there. My body was changing, so that in a few months I wouldn’t need sleep. I’d discussed this with Aries and Sen. Both felt my body was changing so that I could carry the goddess, with her birth the final transformation would be complete, and I would be fully immortal. My genes she’d passed down through the years were kick started and would reach full potential very soon.

I looked up as I heard a door close. Switch came in, and he gave us the updates along with my Chinese.

“
The crew leader has the blue prints done. I gave him our notes and my sketches. I like it all. You’re going to love it Angel; I have them here with me. He faxed them in an hour ago. He said he could have it completed in about two months. He uploaded aerial pictures of our island and has double checked the size and said he can get everything in, and it will be top of the art.

“
He explained to me the functions and the benefits of having his power cell. He said I quote this baby would store three times what it uses on a daily basis so that each day it builds and stores power. It’s all environmentally friendly as well, by the way. The machine used to store the energy combines it into these tiny batteries, and they will last up to ten or twenty years. As long as the panels and batteries survive we will have electricity. He suggests though, that everything be energy saver or natural, like lights, the more windows the better. Cook outside when we can and use as little as possible.”

“
That’s all great Switch.” I replied between bites of my egg roll.

“
There’s more. I talked to a guy in Bangor, and he got me in touch with a specialist on guess what? He majors in bacterial and human waste. There’s a new technology that works for you. You dig this huge hole out where the farmland is.

“
They add these bugs that consume waste and like worms make clean dirt more or less like fertilizer. It becomes fertilizer on our crops and is totally natural, and it runs on very little electricity. If any escapes into the sea, and it will, it is in the form of these bugs, which the sea life eats. It makes them grow two to three times their normal sizes. So all this is a plus on the fishing side. They have been working on this research for almost twenty years in China.”

“
This is sounding better and better.” I commented. Eating and talking about waste consuming bugs… hmm.

“
The crops do the same thing. They get two to four times their normal size, and it’s all completely natural. The only things he’s noticed concerning human side effects was that the babies born in the area are getting smaller. Each are five to six pounds but perfectly formed in every way. Why humans get smaller they haven’t figured out. They think it’s a lack of certain things in the foods that are grown, things we need that the cattle and animals don’t need. Cattle and crops and fish get bigger; we get smaller in five years, which means we eat less. And it’s all natural and safe. The FDA approved it three times over, and they say for some reason the sea water around it acts like a catalyst.”

I nodded. This was all such coincidence.

“
Our water is a little more complicated. We can have wells and hot water heaters. Except, these water heaters are different. They heat slower but once heated stay heated. There won't be heat or air conditioning because it’s not ozone friendly, but the guy building the homes has an idea, aside from the windows which can be boarded when necessary with the same material. All the walls will be thicker and better built, all natural insulation more or less.

“
The solar panels soak up all the heat from the sun so in summer it’s quite cool, and in winter, we have walls that produce heat, only on the inside. No heaters, just these sheets that put out about ten degrees of heat from the solar panels. It stays about sixty degrees all year long, no thermostat but sixty is more or less perfect. There are these invisible lasers in the windows that also capture the heat like solar panels that operate these sheets. The cool part is that the solar panel stored energy backs it up; we save energy by using the windows. He can make it look like the huts but futuristic, definitely a money saving idea for a resort, he said, in the long run. The first five years no profit, you’re paying off the expense of the panels and stuff. But everything after that is almost pure profit.”

“
So this all natural idea with the resort isn’t sounding funny?” I asked.

“
Nope, its big they said. When you combine everything, and have the monastery included it’s like perfect. He said the fireplaces in the monastery will have to be closed in, and the sheets added there. The monastery though, will get its energy from the huts solar panels. It’s a little complicated but he said using the churches deep caves, as the place for the energy tanks is perfect. He also said that built this way we could run a huge fridge and freezer and still have plenty of energy left. If it clouded over, or eclipsed six months straight, we should still be fine. The more we cut back in that scenario the better, though.”

I was happy about all of the news. Hearing about the end of the world tended to make a person feel just a little on the down side.

“
How much?” Aries said. He sounded a bit more cheerful, as well. I was sure that all of this was just as hard on him as it was me.

“
Almost all of it but we have hundreds of millions including Angel’s funds. We also made a website, named it after Kali, and spoke to the tender hearts of environmentalists, and auctioned off a week at a time at the resort when it’s complete. It’s like stealing but in order to save hundreds we have to. The site brings in thousands a day, and it leaks just enough that those who know of this prophesy can contact us. Arch and Frank came up with it and are running it from their base. The funds go directly to our account.”

“
Good, all this in just a few days, imagine what months will show,” Aries said.

“
So, now we’re all on track and moving swiftly and can be sure that things will be ready on time. The sisters of the island are expecting us and said that we are a godsend. They were tired of living in candle light and surviving on eggs.”

Aries laughed, and I laughed.

“
Arch met a nice Lykan chick, by the way. She is the main assistant to Frank and also his niece. So there may be a couple there. Frank also found us a Lykan pilot. So Cross is happy. Madness is working with Frank mainly now; he's met the construction crew and has hired everyone.”

“
So when can Angel and I fly out?”

“
I would say in a few weeks. There’re a lot of workers there, and some are unaware of what’s really going on,” Switch replied stretching.

“
I’ll have lightening under control by then for sure, and maybe whatever my next power will be as well.”

“
Yeah I noticed the tree out front. Better the tree than Cross,” Switch said laughing and jumping out of Angels reach.

Switch and Aries continued their conversation as I went upstairs. I was anxious and needed a few hours’ sleep. I never knew when I’d get some. There was always practicing my powers or making plans.

I got comfortable and lay there a few minutes worrying about a million things. Anything could go wrong. To start with I was listening to voices in my head. Ha, and to guys who claimed to be immortal, I thought.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

It didn’t take me long to drift off but when I did I felt Kali.

“
Mother?” she called quietly.

“
MMM hmmm...?”

“
You will need to learn three more powers. Elements mainly like fire, lightening, water, wind, and earth. You will be able to control thunderstorms and earthquakes. These last few powers I have to give you simultaneously. Tomorrow you will have to feel them and know them. The witch will train you when you get home.”

“
Tomorrow... k...” I mumbled dreamily.

Kali left, and several hours later I awoke to Aries staring again. I yawned, stretched, and smiled.

“
Good morning love,” Aries whispered. He smelled manly, yet spicy, like some of the current men’s hygiene products. Like the kind of cologne that had those commercials, where women were crazy and attacked the man wearing it. Aries was yummy... all that golden, ripe, muscle.