Ascended (10 page)

“Henry, I’m sorry to be stopping
by so late, but this couldn’t wait,” Carter explained.

“You don’t need to apologize, Carter. Please
—come in.” Henry welcomed the unexpected company and invited Carter inside.

Now the difficult part began. How would he find a way to ask Henry about Lily without seeming like he was being intrusive? Carter started with small talk and then
casually led Henry down the road of reminiscing about the day Vivian was born.

“So, I was thinking about a
conversation I had with Vivian a few days ago. We were talking about family, and Vivian mentioned wanting a sister. Weird, huh?” Carter said.

“Yes,
Vivi did always wish she had a sister.” Henry remembered her wishing for one as she blew out the candles on her birthday cake when she was five years old. He smiled as he remembered that day.

“Well
, she almost had a sister, right? I mean, Vivian was a twin, wasn’t she?” Carter waited for Henry’s reaction.

Henry looked at Carter with an unimaginable amount of surprise in his eyes and said
, “What are you talking about?”

Carter was reeling now. He didn’t know how to respond to Henry’s question.
Could it be that Henry really didn’t know about Lily carrying twins?

Henry waited for Carter’s reply
. Frustrated by his silence, he asked again, “Why would you ask me if Vivian was a twin?”

“I’m sorry Henry, maybe I was mistaken,” Carter replied quickly
, trying to cover his error.

Henry looked deep into Carter’s eyes like he
’d done once before, and knew he was hiding something from him. He called him out on his feeling, and Carter just hung his head. He couldn’t look into Henry’s eyes and lie to him. Besides, Carter needed to know why Lily hadn’t told her husband about the twins—and wondered what may have happened to the other baby.

“Henry
, some things are happening that I’m not at liberty to discuss with you right now, but it’s very important that we figure all of this all out. I need to know the truth so I can help Vivian,” Carter said.

Henry was a man of God
. Although he hadn’t shared his thoughts with anyone, he could feel his daughter was in grave danger. He could tell Carter knew this as well, and for some reason he believed Carter had the power to save her.

“Tell me what you know about my Lily and these babies
,” Henry said, ready to help, no questions asked.

“So Lily never told you she was carrying twins?” Carter asked Henry again
, clarifying his information.

“No, she didn’t,”
Henry said sadly.

“Do you know why she wouldn’t have discussed this with you?”

“No. Lily and I never kept secrets from each other. Never!” he said with conviction.

“Okay
.” Carter thought about this for a moment, then asked, “Well, weren’t you in the room when Lily gave birth? Didn’t Dr. Montgomery deliver Vivian?”

“No, I wasn’t in town when my Lily went into labor
; I was on a retreat with the church. Lily called me after she gave birth and told me I was the father of a sweet, perfect little baby girl. We named her together on the phone—Vivian, after Lily’s mom. Dr. Montgomery didn’t deliver the baby.”

“Then who did?” Carter asked.
Henry’s answer shocked him.

“It was Katherine, your mother
.”

Chapter
Nine

Twins

It was late when Carter arrived back at the ranch. He noticed a light on in the kitchen and went to see who was still
awake. He found his mother waiting up for him at the long wooden table, a hot cup of tea in her hand and her ever-present smile in place.

He
sat down at the table next to her and looked at her for a minute, wondering what secrets she was harboring about the birth of Vivian Thorne—and why she had kept those secrets all these years.

Katherine could tell there was something wrong. She
recognized the searching look in her son’s eyes and she knew the day she had always feared had finally come: Carter had questions, and needed answers only she could provide.

She took his hand and said
, “Tell me what you need to know, Carter.”

He responded by saying, “The truth
, Mom; I need to know the truth. I want to know everything about the Thorne family, beginning with the birth of their twins.”

Katherine took one last sip of her tea and
, taking a deep breath, she began her story.

“I met Lily when she moved back here with Henry. I was working as a counselor for battered women at a shelter where Lily volunteered weekly. We became friends and
Lily confided in me that she’d been diagnosed with schizophrenia when she’d lived in Chicago. Shortly after that, I started sessions with her to help with the treatment of her illness. Apparently, she had begun hearing voices—demons, as she described them—and a doctor in Chicago had diagnosed her with the illness, prescribing pills that were supposed to help her. Even on medication, Lily couldn’t escape her torture completely; she was in a terrible relationship with a controlling, overbearing man who was pure evil. When she met Henry, she said her life was changed instantly. She stopped taking her meds, and she explained to me that Henry protected her from the demons in her head. From the moment they met, Lily said she was transformed: Henry was her savior and she was his.

“A few months after living here in Newcastle, they were married
, and Lily had involved herself in all aspects of the church. She set up fundraisers, hosted events for children with special needs, created charities for the less fortunate, and gave almost everything she had to the people who needed it most. She became the town’s Mother Teresa, our angel. She stopped our sessions during that time and seemed to be living the life she was meant to live.

“A few years later, Lily came to me one day and said
‘he’ had found her. I didn’t need to ask who ‘he’ was: I knew she was talking about the evil man from her past. I suggested that she contact the police to get a restraining order, but she laughed at me, saying no one could stop him. She seemed to be spiraling fast, consumed with fear of the man who had tracked her down.

“
I hadn’t seen or spoken to her for several weeks when, out of the blue, she came to me and told me she was pregnant and worried about her baby. Thinking she was suffering from first-pregnancy nervousness, I gave her Dr. Montgomery’s information and told her he’d take good care of her and the baby.

“
Things seemed to be going fine for the first few months of the pregnancy until the day she had an ultrasound. Apparently, Lily was carrying twins, and this seemed to terrify her to no end. She asked me not to tell anyone about the twins, including Henry. I told her I couldn’t, even if I wanted to, because of patient privacy laws. She asked me if Dr. Montgomery was bound by those laws as well and I assured her he was. Lily seemed relieved by that information, but I was very concerned about her mental state. I tried to stay close to her, but she withdrew from reinstating our sessions, and soon after that stopped taking my calls entirely. I would see her at church and she would act as if she didn’t know me at all. I was worried, but I was stuck: bound by my code of ethics, and estranged from my friend.

“
Toward the end of Lily’s pregnancy, Henry went out of town on a retreat with the church; he phoned to tell me he was worried about leaving Lily and asked me to keep an eye on her for him and to call him if any problems arose. Then one night while he was away, I received a strange call from Lily. She was frantic, saying ‘he’ was coming for her. When I asked her where she was, she said she was driving, so I told her to get somewhere safe.  She said there was no safe place for her—that he could find her anywhere. She told me then that she was in front of the Indian reservation; I begged her stay there and wait for me. I raced out to meet her, and when I arrived, Lily was in labor. There was a terrible storm approaching and we had no time to get her to the hospital, so The Chief carried her into the clinic on the reservation. When the tribal doctor put his hand on her stomach, he turned as white as a ghost and started shouting, “
Sica!”
which the Chief told us meant ‘evil.’

“
By then, Lily was screaming in pain and told us to get ‘the evil one’ out of her. I looked to the Chief and asked him what was going on, and he told me there was evil in the room. He said he could literally feel it. He believed what Lily did: that the babies inside Lily were, in fact, emitting an aura of evil.

“
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing; it seemed so ridiculous to me at the time, but they were all so certain about the evil they felt. The Chief told me the babies would be safe if we delivered them there on the reservation, because it was on sacred ground. He said we’d have to deliver them together; it scared the hell out of me, but I knew I had to help my friend.”

She stopped for a moment, sipped her tea, and continued,
“We delivered the first baby, a girl, and we wrapped her in a blanket and handed her to Lily. It was a magical moment for me, not having any children of my own yet, to watch Lily cradle her baby girl in her arms.

T
he second baby was fighting us, as if she didn’t want to leave the comforts of Lily’s womb. The cord was wrapped around her neck, and we feared we would lose her. We managed to get the cord unwound, and we gently guided the baby out. With one more push from Lily, her head was free, but when she opened her eyes and looked straight at us, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. They were as red as fire! The Chief immediately let go of her, but I was too scared to move. The baby was looking at us with such intensity—I felt like she was looking to us to save her.

“
The Chief came closer to her, and they made a connection to each other with just one look. He quickly grabbed her and wrapped her up in a blanket so he could take her to Lily. She just screamed at us to keep her away and held tighter to the other baby. Lily was clearly afraid of her own child, and, seeing those red eyes, I didn’t blame her.

“
Something evil entered our world that day, but thankfully, it didn’t remain there for very long. Under the Chief’s watchful eye, that sweet little baby girl transformed into the most beautiful young soul I had ever seen in all my life. But the bottom line is that Lily gave birth to two healthy baby girls that stormy night, and only one returned home with her.”

Katherine finished her tale and sat back, looking weary and yet relieved that the truth was out.

Carter had sat, completely still and silent, while his mother shared her recollections of that night. He was stunned, to say the least, but admired her courage under fire. He only had one question left: the million dollar question, “Who was Lily’s other baby and where is she now?”

“You already know who she is
, Carter,” Katherine said, wondering why Carter had not been able to figure it out yet. The answer was so obvious, and yet he stared at her blankly.

“It was Vie
, Carter! Violet was Vivian’s sister. She was the baby Lily left behind on the reservation. Don’t you remember your little friend with the violet eyes who disappeared that day at the Tower? The two of you were inseparable, best friends. It was Vie; it has always been Vie!” Katherine exclaimed tearfully, not able to forget the image of the tiny baby separated from her mother and twin sister.

Instantly Carter realized what it all meant. Lucian was going after Vivian to get to Vie
; he didn’t have any use for Vivian at all other than as a means to capture Vie. He stood, kissed his Mom, and thanked her for telling him the truth.

He ran upstairs to his room
, preparing for battle. He opened his dresser drawer to get the Angel Blade and to his astonishment, it was gone. At first he was panicked, but then he thought maybe Raphael must have taken it—that was the only thing that made sense. He raced out to the backyard to look for him.

Raphael showed himself
. “What is it, Carter?”

Carter told him everything he had learned about Vie and Vivian
, and what it meant for Lucian.

“He’s coming for her
, Raph, you know he is. We need to be ready!” Carter spoke like a true warrior.

“I need the blade
,” Carter put his hand out, expecting Raphael to hand it over.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Carter
. I don’t have the blade,” he replied.

“What do you mean you don’t have it?” Carter shouted
, his panic returning.

“Where was it?” Raphael asked.

“I hid it in my room, in the back of one of my drawers. No one has been in my room since I put it there. Well, no one except Tess, but she wouldn’t know what it was, let alone steal anything from me,” Carter responded.

Raphael
raised an eyebrow. Although Carter was certain of Tess’ innocence, Raphael was not. There was definitely something suspicious about that girl—something that seemed off to Raphael—he was sure of it.

“Carter, I need to speak with Gabriel and the others and fill them in. Will you be al
l right here for a little while?” he asked.

“I’ll be just fine,” Carter
said, his thoughts full of vengeance at the mere thought of Lucian.

“Carter, you need to be careful while I’m away.
” As Carter began to shake his head in disagreement, he warned him, “I mean it, Carter. Don’t go looking for trouble! And don’t worry about the blade, either. We—meaning the Guardians—will find the person responsible for taking it.

“
And don’t go looking for the guilty party on your own. You have no idea what Gabriel looks like when he’s angry; I wouldn’t want to deal with his wrath and neither would you, I can promise you that.” He spoke with both respect for, and fear of, Gabriel. Seconds later, he was gone.

Carter still had a million other questions about Vie, and there was only one person who could offer the answers he sorely desired. That person was his mentor and his friend, the Chief. Carter decided to drive to the reservation to get the crucial answers straight from the horse’s mouth.

When he arrived at the reservation
, the Chief was sitting up on the plateau already waiting for him; he had known Carter would come, and he had waited many moons for this day to arrive.

Carter sat
down beside him silently and waited for him to begin.

“
Waka,
I am proud of you for seeking your truth,” the Chief began.

“I wish to hear your story
,” Carter told him, “but you should know, my Violet does not have an evil bone in her body, and there is nothing you can say to convince me otherwise. Ever.”

The
Chief just grinned at Carter, pleased at his confidence in the beautiful young Guardian. “No,
Waka
, she is not evil. But she was born with evil in her. Violet came into this world with unmistakable devil-red eyes, the eyes which only evil-dwellers possess. Yes, there was evil inside her,
Waka
, but there was a light, too. Her eyes called out to me and I knew she needed to be saved. I knew upon our sacred land no evil could dwell, and so did the Dark One.

“
Within the first few days of her life, those eyes changed from devil-red to the most beautiful shade of violet I had ever seen. It was then that we named her…Violet. When you arrived for a visit with your mother, you took to her immediately, as she did to you. You gave her light, and she blossomed within that light. We gave her love, and she grew within us.
He
had given her powers and she thrived like a warrior.

“
Whatever evil was born in Violet had disappeared along with our memories of her birth. Wherever she had come from did not matter to us; we understood where she was supposed to be, and she was our gift to the world,” he said.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Violet?
” Carter asked. “All this time you knew who she was, and you said nothing.”

“I could not
,
Waka
; you had to find your own truth. You had to discover the three gifts that would bring her back to you: life, love, and understanding.  Now that you understand about Violet, she can come to you.” The Chief nodded as he spoke, counting off the three gifts on his long fingers.

“But how?
Violet isn’t here and she can’t return to me. I’ve lost her,” Carter said, his head bowed.

“
Waka
, the world is round. The place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning,” the Chief replied with his unique words of wisdom. He tended to dispense his knowledge in riddle form, challenging Carter to decipher them in his search for answers. Though the riddles appeared quite complex at first, Carter always discovered the answers staring him right in the face.