Eternity (26 page)

“Maggie?”

It was Ezra.

“Felix is wondering if you want breakfast.”

Eran had already pulled his lips away but kept his arms locked around my waist.

“Uh, sure.”

After a brief pause, she asked, “Don’t you want to know what it is?”

“Umm, I’m hungry. I’ll eat anything.”

“Okay…” she replied forebodingly.

My eyes darted back to Eran and I whispered, “She’s going to wonder where you are when she knocks on your door and you’re not there.”

As it turned out, Ezra already knew where to find him.

Still standing outside my door, she called through it. “Do you want breakfast too, Eran?”

He broke into a smile but was able to withhold his laughter. “Sure…Thanks, Ezra.”

“Ummm hmmm,” she replied, disapprovingly, through the door.

The floorboards creaked and we knew she was on her way downstairs.

“She’s not going to be very happy with us,” I whispered in case my voice carried.

“No…she won’t be.”

He hadn’t released his hold on me yet and I wondered just what Ezra would do if she opened the door to find us in an embrace, me without my jeans on.

Eran was watching me, the passion in him still remaining. “For the record, I do want to touch you like that again…far more than you can imagine. But, being the gentleman that I am, I try to restrain myself as best I can. It becomes quite challenging when you tease me like that, Mrs. Talor…”

My heart flipped at the sound of my married name.

“Now…” he collected my jeans and handed them to me. “It would be safest for both of us if you were to finish dressing or I don’t believe we’ll make it out your bedroom door until…well, most certainly, not until tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” I asked, amazed.

“It has been a long time, Magdalene…and I like to take my time with you.”

“I seem to recall that.”

Grinning back at me, he returned to his place at the door…and turned to face it.

I slipped my jeans on quickly, so as not to tease Eran any further, and we headed downstairs to avoid Ezra’s critical stare and suffer through Felix’s homemade bacon and liver pastries.

It was Thursday, and only the second week at school, which meant pop quizzes. Everyone, including Ms. Beedinwigg, gave them. It was like a preplanned faculty assault.

Eran asked me how I’d done and my results were so poor I didn’t want to tell him. He, however, missed only one question…just one out of four quizzes he’d been given. I told him that it was unfair that he, as an Alterum and with memory since the beginning of time, could recite the entire earth’s history.

I sulked to my bike at the end of the day, gravely frustrated in my performance at school. Always having been a good student with impeccable grades, the late night training with Ms. Beedinwigg and the emotional toll of reliving my past life experiences were clearly having an impact on my life.

Still, after dinner was over that night and Eran had left for his mission, rather than opening my books, I headed for Mr. Hamilton’s house for another session with Ms. Beedinwigg. Even though I was frustrated with my grades, I knew that defeating the Fallen Ones was far more important in the scheme of it all. Ms. Beedinwigg didn’t acknowledge my miserable pop quiz score so she’d apparently come to the same conclusion. Instead, she gave me another type of test.

“Maggie,” she said, handing me a sword. “What have you learned when Fallen Ones were nearby?

At first this seemed to be another pop quiz, which didn’t leave me thrilled.

“My radar goes off.”

“Correct,” she stated.

At least I got one question correct today.

“What did you learn about your radar while reliving segments of your past life?”

“That I was able to control it.”

“Excellent,” she said. “Do you know how?”
“No…” I said but unwilling to give up that easily I added, “By focusing on my surroundings.”
“Yes, that’s right,” she said. “Although you don’t remember this, you were able to control your reaction to them in every one of your past lives. You’re going to learn how to focus on your surroundings again tonight.”

“How?” I asked, leery. “Do you have a Fallen One stashed away?”

“As a matter of fact…” she replied, “we don’t. But we don’t need one. We’re going to create a reaction similar to the way you feel when one is around.”

With that announced, she approached me with a belt unlike anything I’d ever seen. It had small black boxes attached to it every half inch.

“This is a device we’ve created and used in the training of other messengers. It will send shock waves through you, bolts of electricity that distract you…exactly the same as what you feel in the presence of Fallen Ones.”

I took it and buckled it to my waist, suspicious of how well it would work. I’d been experiencing these feelings for the last three months and most intensely since the hoards of the Fallen Ones began arriving in New Orleans. I was skeptical, to say the least, that it could simulate the precise feelings and intensity of my radar.

“Try it,” I said.

She held a remote controlled switch in her hand that she flicked on.

Immediately, the hair on the back of my neck rose up, my palms went sweaty, and my heart raced.

She kept it on for only seconds but it felt like hours. Flicking off the switch, she waited for my confirmation.

“Yeah…that works.”

Pleased, she walked to the beginning of the first obstacle course and pointed out, “You may have noticed that these two courses are meant to run together. You’ll be running both courses tonight, starting here and stopping at the end of the second one. You will be timed and…I will be using the device.”

I nodded though I was not quite sure of this exercise. My radar going off had always been a distraction. Yet, I figured if I could ignore it in previous lives, I could do it just the same here.

Stepping up to the beginning of the course, I waited for Ms. Beedinwigg’s signal and then launched in to a sprint.

I felt her turn on the machine by the second step I made inside the contraption. The moment I felt the feeling of panic rising in me, I smelled the metal coming off the machines, something I’d never noticed before. I heard the grinding of the fourth mechanism and knew it needed oil. Looking ahead of me at the way each part of the obstacle course was laid to fall in a precise order…I knew what to avoid and when.

Being so alert to the course, I didn’t feel the signal not once after it went off. At the end, as I stepped out of the last potential threat, I recognized the signal again.

Ms. Beedinwigg flicked it off.

Turning, I found Campion and Alfred staring at me, jaws fallen open.

Ms. Beedinwigg stood just to their left, smiling proudly.

“Was that good?” I asked. “It felt good.”
“I think ‘good’ would be an extreme understatement,” said Campion.

I smiled my appreciation at his flattery but Ms. Beedinwigg didn’t allow me a moment of glory.

“Let’s try it now with multiple attackers,” she suggested, handing me a sword and collecting weapons for her and Alfred. “I saw you hone your reaction at our last session when Alfred came into the fight. Your senses were up. They were aggravated and you skillfully used them to defeat me and to fight Alfred. I want to see you use your panic again, dominate it, use it…and nothing will overpower you.”

She and Alfred raised their weapons and then she flicked on the belt.

My body, having relaxed a little, sprang back in to action.

Then came the first strike.

I deflected Ms. Beedinwigg’s weapon at the last second. Another glinting, silver shard came in to view – Alfred’s weapon - and I was able to deflect it.

Then I saw it all. I knew where Ms. Beedinwigg was going to strike by the sway of her torso and the way she flexed her muscles. I saw Alfred’s technique as if I was the one commanding the steps and because of it I could judge where he would land his weapon. The fight became a dance, one in which I saw every move before it happened. My body followed the speed and direction of their weapons so that they were unable to connect with me, taking aim and attacking when I saw a gap in their defense. In the end, Ms. Beedinwigg landed on the ground with Alfred on top of her, both necks against my sword.

Ms. Beedinwigg, panting, said, “You’re better than I thought you’d be.”

I smirked at her. “Happy to disappoint.” I stood up, rolled my shoulders, and added, “That felt good. Let’s go again.”

Ms. Beedinwigg snickered. “I think the trainers have done all they can for the day.”

Campion approached from his regular chair against the back wall. “It’s a good day when you outlast the trainer.”

“It certainly is,” agreed Ms. Beedinwigg then she paused and assessed me openly. “You are almost ready.”

“Almost?” I scoffed. “I believe I could have handled you and Alfred with one hand behind my back. How could I not be ready?”

Ms. Beedinwigg looked at me squarely. “Trust me…there will come a time when you are ready. You have not crossed that threshold. Not yet.”

I rolled my eyes, spinning on my heels. Silent and disgruntled, I fit my weapon back in its place in the cabinet.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Ms. Beedinwigg called out.

“Right, right,” I muttered, heading up the stairs.

Campion and I drove home, with me at the handlebars. I sped, while sensing strongly that Campion disagreed with my little display of anger.

I didn’t care.

When we reached the driveway, I stopped and said over the rumble of my Harley Davidson, “I’d like some time on my own.”

“Maggie,” he called over the thundering motor, “don’t you think you’re taking this temper tantrum a bit far?”

That made me twist in my seat. My lips pinched in anger until I spoke. “I’m ready, Campion. I’m ready.”

“Yes, but…” he sighed in frustration, “yes but she has generations of training experience. Don’t you think you should listen to her?”

“She has generations of experience and yet I took her down tonight…she and Alfred…together,” I pointed out.

“But she knows what you’re up against with the Fallen Ones. She knows what to expect-”

“Campion,” I cut him off. “I appreciate your input. I do. But I need some time on my own. Would you mind getting off my motorcycle?”
He disagreed. I could tell from his lack of movement. Eventually though, after several seconds of silent contemplation, he stepped off and moved to the edge of the driveway.

“Thanks,” I said, though I wasn’t sure if he heard me over the motor’s roar.

The truth was…my mind was having an internal dialogue its self. While partly agreeing with Campion, I also trusted my instincts. I felt ready. I watched my past lives, reliving them so that my mind recalled the movements I’d used in defense. I had beaten the course and multiple-attacker training with Ms. Beedinwigg and Alfred landing on the floor at the edge of my blade.

I was good.

In the back of my mind I could hear Ms. Beedinwigg tell me, “Good isn’t good enough. You are mankind’s last hope. You are the last of the messengers. You need to be perfect.”

Those words were lingering in my consciousness as I drove the bike into the shed. Still overwhelmingly annoyed, I kicked out the stand, leaned it, and swung my leg over to the ground. Pulling my key from the ignition, I strolled to the door and stopped.

Only then did I notice the hair on the back of my neck was going wild. I hadn’t felt them rise up, being so preoccupied with anger.

Absentmindedly, I glanced down to my waist.

Yes, I’d remembered to take off Ms. Beedinwigg’s device.

That was when I heard the growl.

It was nearly pitch black in the small shed where I stored my Harley Davidson with only a faint illumination from the street light several yards away. My eyes scanned the darkness.

There was only one place for the Fallen One to hide…in the shadows.

I hadn’t moved since it let me know it was here. Instead, I concentrated on its sound, trying to determine where it stood from behind me.

It was breathing, slow and shallow, but the noise echoed off the metal inside, disrupting any potential at honing in on it. A rustling sound told me that it had just opened its wings…readying for attack.

I couldn’t get a firm fix on the sounds until the very last second. Only when it had launched itself into the air did I know where it was hiding.

A scrapping, long and hideous, against the metal told me that it hadn’t been standing in the shadows at all. It had been clinging on the main beam running from one end of the roof to the other.

It had been hiding from above.

That wasn’t what threw me, however.

The scrapping sound came from claws and if my attacker had claws it wasn’t a Fallen One.

I was now in the presence of an Elsic.

Although I attempted to turn, my body only made it halfway around before the collision came.

The force of it made my body flip, heels sweeping fully around towards the sky and back to the ground again. Already in motion, I fell backwards, landing hard against the firm dirt.

My breath was gone. My mouth was open, my chest was moving, but no air was filling my lungs.

The wind had been knocked out of me.

Haggard, my breath drew in then, but the damage had been done. My attacker had me where it wanted me: On the ground, alone, and without a single weapon in sight.

Then my mind slowed, focusing. From its walk I knew it would attack from the right side.

Its muscles were tensing on that side of its body.

I, however, wasn’t going to wait around for it.

Flipping my legs over my head again – this time with purpose – I rolled over and landed on my feet.

Its wings drew out, stretching longer than a man’s body.

I couldn’t see much of it in the darkness but I assumed it was sneering.

“Let’s go,” I hissed, not allowing my voice above a whisper or my housemates would hear and certainly be hurt in an attempt to rescue me.