Transcending the Legacy (21 page)

I lean against the open door of the truck holding Tessa, her head resting on my arm. I sway from side to side
, watching Ezra talk with Sebastian and Daniel. Daniel’s glances at me during the conversation, then returns back to Ezra as he continues to talk quietly. Briggs walks passed them, drawing my attention from them as I follow his nervous pace. He looks out in the direction that Xander and Nate went with Ira and Lathan, then kicks a small stone with the tip of his combat boot. The rain has slowed and a mist has settled in casting a golden fog among us; the sun is trying to peek through the heavy haze. I wondering how close it is to night fall being the days are longer now. We have been driving only a short while since leaving the compound. Briggs said the Dwellers are more active at night. Will we be able to make it to the mounds before nightfall? I can’t fight the image of the swarm that attacked Tom’s compound; I guess it doesn’t really matter if it is nightfall or not any more.

I glance at each of the guardians. Monica is perched over a duffle bag systematically pushing bullets into a clip. Briggs hunkers down next to her pulling Monica’s at
tention from her task. He retrieves a handful of bullets from a box then starts filling a clip. Siobhan, Jake, Nick, and Elisha are surveying the surface of the woods, fingers on the triggers of their guns.

Luke has his rifle hanging down by his side. Corinna is sitting on a large boulder, gun dangling from her hand, staring at the grass. I don’t see Sam.
All of a sudden, I feel small, warm fingers fumbling with the copper device dangling from my neck.

“What is this?”Tessa asks in a hoarse voice.
I look down at her small face and see her gazing at the medallion in awe as she holds it in her delicate hand. She runs her thumb along the smooth glass, studying it.

“It is the first Copula,” I say.

Her eyes widen and she picks her head up from my shoulder to hold it between both of her hands now. “The implant?” she asks.

I nod.
“Yes.”

She turns it over once with her small fingers before she shifts the device into one hand, taking her other hand and placing
it on the back of her neck. “Is this in my neck?” I nod and her eyes widen again as she says, “I didn’t think it was this big.”

I can tell her mind is wandering frantically while she runs her fingers along
her neck.

I say, “It is hard to feel. It might feel like a little bump right here.”

I place my free hand over hers and position it at the base of her skull. She looks into my eyes with surprise, “I feel something.”

I move my hand away and Tessa gently releases the medallion to my neck.

“Why do you have it around your neck?”
she asks.

I glance over at Sebastian just as he looks at me. “My family is the one that created it,” I tell her.

I look down at Tessa again. Inquisitively she studies the interior of the medallion, the cogs, the pedals that once propelled connecting the device to the vessel to traverse.

“So it has been passed down to you from your mom?” she asks curiously.

I’m not prepared for her question. It reminds me that it has been days since my mother made contact with me in my visions. She hasn’t tried to communicate since the plane. Has she left me?

“
No, my dear,” Ms. Olivia’s calming voice breaks my spiraling thoughts as she answers Tessa’s question.

I look up at her warm honey colored eyes and wonder if she is speaking to me. Tessa angles her head to find the voice, so I turn by body for her to see better.

Ms. Olivia’s eyes divert from mine to Tessa’s slowly as she says, “The creator was her great uncle Sebastian. He passed it down to her.” The tightness in my throat melts away when Ms. Olivia places her hand on my arm tenderly. “Let me take her for a bit Jesca.”

I hesitate giving her over until Tessa leans into her with open arms. Guardedly, I relent and pass her to Ms. Olivia.

Once in her warm arms, Tessa smiles softly. A real smile, one that I wouldn’t expect from a little girl that has endured such trauma within the past few hours.

I glance at Ms. Olivia as she focuses solely on little Tessa and I remember what this woman has done for others her whole life; healed them. She has healed this little girl’s heart just by holding her in her arms.

Tessa lays her head down on Ms. Olivia’s shoulder, wraps her small legs around her waist,
and tightens her arms around her neck. As I watch her sway with Tessa in her arms, I touch the medallion on my neck and think of my mother again.

Ms. Olivia’s voice is hushed as she says,
“She has not left Jesca.”

I look up at Ms. Olivia, expecting to see her looking at me, talking to me. Instead, her eyes are closed as she moves from side to side, fully engaged in holding Tessa.

“Thank you,” I tell her quietly.

She opens her eyes lazily and nods her head.

I notice movement in the woods and react instantly positioning myself in front of Tessa and Ms. Olivia. Damn it, I don’t have a gun! I search for the others to react and without delay they each take aim at the woodland. Sam comes from beside me, startling me. His gun is drawn and aimed at the woods as well. How did I not see him earlier? Ira’s massive form is the first to emerge from the lush overgrowth. Xander and Nate come into view with Lathan close behind, but they are not alone. Lathan is carrying a body draped over his shoulder.

Ezra and Briggs approach them first, guns in hand
, but no longer aimed. Ezra asks urgently, “Is it a Dweller?”

He looks at Nate and Xander, “Were you attacked?”

A muffled yell comes from the body folded over Lathan’s shoulder. Did they gag it? Briggs and Ezra are back to full alert. They aim their guns at the form that is wiggling aggressively, trying to break free from Lathan’s hold. The bold Rephaim takes each blow from the swinging legs like they are non-existent.

Ira, “No, it isn’t a
Dweller.”

The stifled yelling rant from the captive is louder, but unrecognizable.
The voice is feminine though.

Lathan bends
while Nate and Xander take hold of the wiggling body to set it on its feet. A head of long silver hair is the first glimpse I have of this person. It is a woman. Her white hair is strewn and covering her face. She is feeble, weak looking as she stands between Nate and Xander. Cautiously, we all move in toward the captive, Nate, and Xander. Ira removes the gag from the woman’s mouth. “We needed to gag her. Her screams would stir every Dweller in the area,” Ira explains.

Xander adds
thumbing back at Ira and Lathan, “When she saw these two, she was on the verge of screaming!”

Nick snorts, “Can’t blame grandma. I would scream too.”

Lathan and Ira both glare at Nick. He holds his hands up surrendering to them, gun in hand, as he says, “What? True.”

Nick notices Elisha staring at him and mumbles, “They would scare my grandma.”

The woman is breathing hard, white strands of hair being blown from her head by her panting breath. I hear the slightest hiss of words. She is trying to speak, but I can’t make out what she is saying.

“Who are you?” asks Briggs.

She wheezes the word and I only hear part of it. “....beth.”

Briggs turns to Daniel and Sebastian.
“She is on the verge of dying who ever she is,” he says.

Monica asks,
“If she isn’t a Dweller, what is she doing out here in the middle of the woods?”

Corinna says, “Maybe she came from the next town?”

Sebastian leaves Daniel’s side and steps closer to the woman to try and get a better look at her.

Daniel responds to Corinna’s comment, “We are on the outskirts of Dalton. It wouldn’t have been far for her to get here.”

Sebastian places his gun in his pocket and tries to get a good look at her face.

Jake chimes in,
“It doesn’t explain what she is doing out here alone.”

Sam says, “She may not be alone.”

Luke asks, “
Where are Seth and Errol?”

Ira
answers, “They are checking the area for any others.”

Standing before Nate and Xander, Sebastian cowers lower and closer to the woman to try and get a look at her hidden face.

The woman grunts and tries to break away from Nate and Xander’s strong hold. Her efforts get her nowhere, just make her wheezing breath more strained. I can’t help admiring her small fight; she is tough for an older woman.

Unknowingly, I move in closer, curious about who this woman is.

Sebastian asks her softly, “Are you alone?”

The woman nods as she slowly draws a slower breath. More of her hair falls over her face. Carefully, Sebastian’s reaches out seemingly to brush her hair from her face.
She turns away from his approaching hand.

Daniel whispers vigilantly, “Careful.”

Sebastian doesn’t heed his warning, brushing away the shroud of hair covering her face and revealing terror-stricken sage colored eyes. Her lips quiver as her widened eyes dart from one guardian to another, then back to Sebastian.

I ask her delicately, “What is your name? Who are you?”

Her eyes remain petrified and her lips still as she stares fixedly at me. Noticing the weight of her frozen stare, Xander and Nate both shift their eyes from her to me.

Sebastian touches her chin with his other hand and turns her face toward him. Her eyes do not follow, they cling to me. She tries to wet her dry quivering lips with her tongue, but there is nothing to wet them with; her mouth is dry.

Daniel sees her dryness too and says, “She needs water. She’s dehydrated.”

She continues to inspect me. Feeling completely vulnerable u
nder her examining eye, I look everywhere but at her.

Siobhan passes Sebastian a canteen of water for her to drink from. Still holding her chin with his hand, he tips the canteen to her lips. The water touches their parched mouth and she flinches, but doesn’t drop her gaze from me.
The water runs down the front of her mouth streaking the dirt that has gathered on her face from being out in the elements. How long has she been out here and where would she have hidden if the Dwellers came?

Sebastian releases her chin and pulls the canteen from her lips. She seems oblivious to the water being snatched from her, still centering her gaze on me. Nate looks from her to me and asks, “Why is she staring at Jesca like that?”

Ezra adds, “She is delirious. She doesn’t know any of us.”

I am focused intently on
the discussion between Ezra and Nate until I hear the woman depart a name, “Ana.”

She has my full attention and my eyes connect with hers immediately.
I move in to demand an answer as to why she has called my mother’s name. “Why did you say her name?”

Daniel questions, “What?”

Ira furrows his brow. “She said nothing, Jesca.”

Frustrated by their denial, I raise my voice
, “She said my mother’s name; Ana! I heard her! ”

Ezra places his hand on my shoulder and speaks softly.
“Jesca, she didn’t say anything.”

I bellow, “Then she thought it!”

I look up from the woman to Nate and Xander. “Please tell me you heard it.”

Xander shakes his head, “I didn’t Jes.”

I glance at Nate and he shakes his head denying it as well. I look at the woman again. She is still studying me.

I know what I heard.
I heard my mother’s name come from her. I ask her again, “Why did you say her name? Do you know my mother?”

Ezra
murmurs, “Jes, she is listless. No one knows how long she has been out here. She doesn’t know any of us.”

Sebastian turns his head from her and glances back at Ezra and I, his face as
white as a ghost. “I know who she is.”

He knows her?

Sebastian’s voice trembles, “This is my sister, Ana’s mother, and your grandmother; Elisabeth.”

Elisabeth Onoch Gershon. The sister that grew up suffering from crippling headaches with no relief, the woman that married Gabriel Gershon and gave birth to my mother. The mother that gave birth to a daughter with more intense afflictions than her own. The mother that sought her only brother to help her daughter when there was nowhere else to turn to. The mother that left her daughter, my mother, with him to raise.

I watch Sebastian as he takes hold of her hands and tells Nate and Xander to release her.
They both let go and move away from her. As Sebastian pulls her along gently, she scuffles toward me oblivious to everything else around her but me.

She rasps dryly, “Ana, I’m sorry.”

I bark curtly, “I’m not Ana.”

She doesn’t seem to hear me and repeats herself. “Ana, I’m sorry.”

I close my eyes, wanting to shut out the sound of my mother’s name coming from this woman and murmur, “You left her.”

Sebastian chides me mildly, “Enough
, Jesca.”

I ignore him, the resent
ment bubbling up within me as I see my mother as a child being left by her mother in my head. “You just walked away and never looked back.”

Ezra hisses in a low tone, “Not now
, Jes.”

I open my eyes and glance at Ezra. He is shaking his head, begging for me to let this go.

The woman says her name again with more force behind it, “Ana.”

I close the space between my grandmother and me and roar, “I am not Ana! Ana is gone!” My holler breaks off into a yelp when I repeat myself, “Ana is dead!”

Elisabeth blinks her eyes rapidly and furrows her brow, just as Sebastian pulls her away from me.

I start to advance on her again when Nate steps in front of me, takes hold of my arm and holds me back from moving in on her. His touch should anger me, instead it electrifies me just as it did in the compound last night. I try to ignore the obvious sensation it has stirred in me and attempt to pull my arms out of his grasp. Nate tightens his grip and another spike of fever courses through me from his touch.

Nate hisses at me, “You need to let it lie
, Jes.”

His ignorant comment makes me forget his touch for the moment and I respond sharply, “Let it lie? She abandoned my mother and disappeared
, Nate!”

Nate looks over his shoulder as he hurriedly leads me toward the truck, “You don’t know the whole story.”

When we get to the front of the truck, shielded from Sebastian, Elisabeth, and the others, I snap at him, “I know enough! If she had not left my mother, if she stuck around, raised her daughter, her life might have been different!”

Nate keeps his grip on my arms firm and moves in on me.
I back up, the center of my back making contact with the hood of the truck.

He thunders,
“Yes, it could have been different, but not the way you wish it could be!”

I yell back, “What way is that
, Nate! She could have had Sebastian help her with my mother! That woman could have chosen to stay and raise her daughter! Her choice might have changed my mother’s entire life!”

Nate narrows his eyes as he tries to read into my words.
“You mean your mother’s death, don’t you?”

My throat tightens around my words with emotion as I push them from me. “
Yes! It could have changed everything! Her life, my father’s life, my life! It would all have been different!”

Nate grip on my arms softens and he
shakes his head. “I don’t believe that! Your mother would have made the same choices she did with or without your grandmother. She would have chosen to seek her legacy, meet your father, fall in love, and have you.”

Choices.

Of course this conversation would come to the one thing that has divided Nate, Xander, and I. My tone admonishes what he is getting at. “Choices.”

Nate nods.
“Yes, choices.”

I squint my eyes, tilt my head, and ask bitingly, “Are you talking about my mother or me now?”

Nate closes his eyes tightly and groans, “Ahhh! Jesca, I’m not talk...”

I knew he would turn this around on me, I interrupt him,
“You don’t know why I chose what I did, Nate! I couldn’t watch you and Xander fight any more! It was putting you at risk because of me! I don’t want that for either of you! That on top of my emotions for you both was pitting you against each other! My not choosing was meant to save you both from…from me!”

Nate crinkles his eyes and scoffs, “Save us from you?”

The misting precipitation around us becomes a soft rainfall again. Visibly stunned, Nate lets go of my arms, takes a step back, and wipes his dampened face with one rough, angry swipe.

His voice waivers when he speaks again, “What if
it isn’t your choice, Jesca? What if Xander or I are meant to choose what will happen.”

Both confused and concerned by his statement I ask, “What are you talking about? What would you need to choose?”

Nate rests his hands on his hips, lowers his head, and shakes his head. With his head still hung low, he looks up at me through the dark damp hair that has fallen over his turquoise eyes. My anger is quelled suddenly as memories of those comforting, yet passionate eyes creep into my mind. Nate moves closer to me again, his fingers run tenderly along my folded arms sending a heated current from the tips of my fingers to the top of my shoulders. It would be easy to just let the desire take over, but he hasn’t answered me. I need to know what he meant by him and Xander needing to make a choice. Does it have something to do with what they have been keeping from me?

Needing to know fuels my senses and I
ask, “What choice, Nate? Please tell me.”

“We need to leave.” Xander’s forceful voice cleaves the thick air between Nate and I, startling us and
forcing us apart. His examining eyes take in the remnants of what might have happened between Nate and me before he interrupted us.

“We are taking her with us,” is all he says as he turns and walks back to the rear of the truck.

Nate and I both look at each other for a moment, then he runs both of his hands through his damp hair. Without another word, he lowers his eyes and strides back to the rear of the truck. Taking the thickened air with him, I’m able to take a deep breath for the first time since our heated discussion began. I lean back against the front of the truck and tilt my head back, letting the cold raindrops strike my face.

Suddenly, I feel a foreign weight within me, forcing me to tilt to the side without my control
. Panicked, I open my eyes and everything spins slightly.

“Jescaaaaaaa
.” The long drawn out buzz of my name rings familiar.

Beyond the veil. The way he said my name. It’s Michael’s voice.

I quickly focus on a small rock on the ground to try and gain my equilibrium.

Once the ground slows its tailspin,
I look around me.

Where is he?

Unexpectedly and with swift force, I’m hit with a gut-wrenching spasm that coils into a heightened nausea. I reach for the side of the truck, grab a hold of the side mirror for support, and pinch my eyes closed to try and push the retching feeling down. The intensity of the revulsion is significant and unfortunately memorable.

Michael is the only one that has made my affliction this excruciating.

The Dwellers didn’t make a dent in the one that has hit me now. I feel the wave subside in an infinitesimal degree. Hearing Briggs voice directing the others, I open my eyes and try to walk toward his voice. “Put her in the front by the wall by the bags, it is safer just in case she gets jarred,” he commands.

To my dread, my attempt to get to the others is
a short shuffle of one of my limbs. What is happening to me? Why can’t I lift my legs?

I try moving the other leg. Again, it
drags the dirt beneath my foot. The receded retching takes rises again abruptly. I close my eyes and lean against the side of the truck.

I hear Siobhan shrill, “Jesca!”

I look up at her with
half-mast eyes as she runs toward me with Nate, Xander, and the others scrambling behind. With them coming to help me, my body resolves to collapse to the ground and I’m left sitting there, immoveable, waiting for their rescue. Somehow Nate gets to me first. I try to tell him that I can’t walk, I can’t get up, but my lips won’t work.

He calls out brokenly, “Xander! Ira!”

Ezra is by his side now, staring at me, terrified. “What happened?”

Nate wraps his arms around my waist and starts to pull me up. I’m able to give
in to the momentum of his pull and help a little but not much. Nate’s lips are close to my ear as he drapes my flailing arms over his shoulders and pulls me up to stand, his ragged and collapsing breath murmuring. “No, no, no, no.”

I hear Ira and the other
Rephaim distinct thunderous approach just as tendrils of energy begin to pin-prick and stretch along my arms and legs. The tingling sensation in my feet unlock the weight that had paralyzed them and I’m able to feel myself standing on my own again. The same for my hands and arms, I can move them willingly again. I pull back from Nate and look up at him, face streaked with the mix of fallen rain and tears. Ira and the other Rephaim are hovering along with Ezra and Xander on either side of me. Ezra cups under my elbow for added support as I drop my arms from Nate’s shoulders.

Keeping my eyes trained on Nate, I rub my lips together, feeling for
them before I test there workability. I need to let him know I’m fine. “I...I’m okay.”

Openly, Nate breathes in deep through his nose then sighs noisily. Swiftly he wipes hi
s eyes roughly with his arm sleeve again. His eyes dart from me, to Xander, then Ira.

Ezra tightens his hand under my elbow as he denies my appraisal,
“No. You. Are. Not. Okay! Xander, take a hold of her arm, we need to get her to the truck!”

As Xander takes hold of my arm, I see him
drag his fear-filled eyes from Nate to me. Nate and the others back away to let us pass as Ezra and Xander shepherd me to the rear of the truck.