Angel reborn, p.40
Angel Reborn, page 40
“How long have you been working for Nick’s family?”
“I freelance, so I don’t work exclusively for them. If they need help and it’s something I’m available for in an area I happen to be in or want to travel to, I take it. If not, I pass. It worked out well that I happened to be in this area when the call went out for Nick.”
“I’m glad you were available. Nick said you travel a lot.”
“Yeah, I don’t like to stay in one place for too long. I get itchy to go.”
“What exactly is your job title, if you don’t mind me asking? I thought at first, you were like a security guard or a bodyguard. But you seem to do a lot more than that.”
“A whole lot more,” Zeck said laughing. “I do handle security and bodyguards, and that’s, I’d say, a significant portion of what I do. I don’t know that I have an official title. It’s not like I have a business card I hand out, you know? But if I had to put a label on it, I suppose you could say it’s a cross between what’s traditionally known as a fixer and a personal concierge. But the type of concierge who arranges things that aren’t on the menu, if you know what I mean.”
“I think I know what you mean, and I think that would be awesome on a business card.”
“You think so? Maybe I should do that.” He pulled up to a stop sign and then looked both ways before turning left. “Nick says you had another vision.”
“Yeah. It wasn’t like last time when I knew what was happening. This one made no sense at all. I didn’t know where I was. It was a room I’ve never been in, not that I remember, anyway, and there was a woman there that I didn’t recognize. What do you think it meant?”
“I thought at first when he told me that it could be a vision of the future or a premonition of an encounter you’re going to have. Perhaps you haven’t met this woman yet, but she’s gonna be of some importance to you, so you’re having visions to lead you to her.” He paused, tapping his thumb on the steering wheel. “But Nick indicated that you think the woman may have seen you.”
“Yes. She looked right at me and cursed, which freaks me out, to be honest. How could she see me if I was the one having a vision?”
Zeck tilted his head slightly and grimaced. “If you’re sure she saw you and she reacted to your presence, then you may have been projecting in her reality.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that a manifestation of your energy could have actually been there with her.”
“Whoa. What? How is that possible?”
“Some Veiori have the ability to project themselves outside their body and make it appear they’re somewhere they’re not.”
“And you think that’s what I was doing?”
“It would be crazy, seeing as how it would mean you’ve developed yet another power, but at this point, you’ve already thrown the rule book out the window, so why not?”
“So, you’re saying I somehow just randomly showed up uninvited in a stranger’s living room?”
“I don’t know that it was random or uninvited. This happened when you picked up an object, right? Nick said it was some sort of memento from your childhood?”
“It was a turtle. I don’t remember having it, but it was in a box of baby things my mom gave me when we met with her. In my vision, there was a turtle that looked just like it in a piece of art on the wall.”
“Interesting. Nick didn’t mention there being another turtle.”
“Does that make a difference?”
He was staring at the road ahead of us, but he seemed to be somewhere else, lost in his thoughts.
“I’m thinking those turtles are connected,” he said. “One brought you to the other.”
“I don’t understand. Because we both have different forms of the same turtle design, I showed up in her house? Seriously?”
“You said she cursed. Did she seem scared?”
I brought her reaction forth in my mind and replayed it. “I wouldn’t say scared. I think maybe startled. She certainly didn’t scream and go running out of the room like I would have if someone just appeared in my living room out of thin air.”
Zeck grew quiet as we approached the driveway of the Nyack house, and I waited somewhat patiently as he interacted with the guard at the gate. But when we’d pulled forward and he was still quiet, my patience ran out.
“What are you thinking? What does it mean?”
He drew in a breath and opened his mouth as though he was going to speak, but then he clamped it shut.
“What, Zeck? What are you not saying?”
“I can’t say anything for sure,” he said as he continued up the drive. “So, I probably shouldn’t say anything at all.”
“No way. You can’t be cryptic like that and then not tell me what it is. C’mon, Zeck. If you have a theory, you have to tell me.”
He swore beneath his breath and then sighed. “Okay, but keep in mind that’s all it is—a theory.”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Connective objects are an old form of magic. With telephones, texting, and the internet, they’re not needed in the same way they once were. But when they were commonly used, the chosen objects would be imbued with the energy of the Veiori they serve to connect. Once they exchange the objects, no matter how far apart they are geographically, either can connect with the other as long as they both maintain possession of their objects.”
“And you think these turtles are connective objects?”
“Yeah. I do.”
“But I don’t know this woman, so I don’t know why I would be connected to her. Isn’t it possible one or both of us just happened to get one of the turtles? I mean, for all we know, she could have bought the wall art at a flea market or a thrift store.”
“No. The magic would only work to connect the people it was intended to connect. It creates an energetic pathway, or a channel, if you will, and only those two people can communicate on that channel. The objects serve as a switch that turns the channel on. Once they’re connected, they can converse in an environment created by their minds no matter where their bodies may be.”
“If that’s true, then it’s not just the turtles that are connected. You’re saying you think this woman and I are connected somehow.”
“You have to be. She was an active part of your projection. If the two of you were able to see each other and communicate, you were on the same channel. Which means she’s Veiori, and it also means she left the channel open for you. Aria, I think she could be your biological mother.”
I was still trying to process Zeck’s theory when we went inside. I knew better than to question what was possible when it came to the powers of the bloodlines, but it seemed surreal that holding a beaded turtle would somehow carry me to my biological mother.
Wouldn’t I have felt a stronger connection to her if that was the case? If she’d been expecting me, wouldn’t she have said something other than “Shit!” when I finally showed up after twenty-seven years?
I was so skeptical I didn’t bring it up to Nick until after Zeck had left and I had gone in to kiss a sleeping Sage.
“Have you heard of anything like that?” I asked after I relayed what Zeck had said.
“Not that I recall, but if it’s something that only exists between Veiori, then it makes sense that it wouldn’t be common knowledge.”
I opened the fridge and rummaged around in search of a snack. I was craving something sweet, but when I spotted the carrots, I opted for the crunch instead. “Do you think it’s possible the redhead is my mother?”
“I don’t know. I suppose at this point, anything’s possible.”
“If he’s right, then this means my mother is a Veiori, which would explain my visions with the arrow and the turtle, but not my affinity for churning water or melting metal…or the way I healed Sage’s arm. Even if Noelle’s right and I’m a chimera, that’s too many bloodlines.”
“True. There must be something we’re missing or something we’re not considering. How did Zeck suggest that you proceed? Should you try again to use the turtle and see if you could connect with this woman?”
“He didn’t say, and I don’t know how I feel about that.” A shiver tingled up my spine just thinking about it. “On the one hand, yes, I want answers, but the whole idea that there’s some part of me projecting into some house God only knows where to talk to some woman I don’t even know is just…” I shivered again. “That kind of freaks me out, to be honest. And even if she is my birth mother, who knows if this woman wants me showing up unannounced in her living room? She didn’t exactly seem thrilled to see me.”
“I’m sure she was caught off guard as well, but didn’t Zeck say she had to be open to it for you to be there?”
“He said she left the channel open, and she obviously still has the turtle, so she must have expected at some point I’d contact her.”
“Then maybe you should try again and see if her response is different.”
I felt resistance at the mention of trying again. It wasn’t like the instinctual and adamant no that I felt when it came to telling others about my abilities and what had happened to me. It was more like how I’d felt when Nick wanted us to jump off one roof and onto another: I’m not comfortable, I feel scared, and I don’t think I want to do this.
As I chewed my carrot and watched Nick prep the coffee pot for morning, I was comforted by the normalcy of the routine. I loved that he still drank coffee every day even though he was no longer human. It made me feel like part of him was still the old Nick. It felt familiar, like some tiny part of our life hadn’t changed.
But so much else had.
I felt swept away by it, like there was a raging river carrying me away from everything I’d ever known, and I was helpless to fight against it. It seemed like every day brought with it some new revelation, some new power, or some new fear.
Nothing was the same anymore. Not me. Not Nick. Not our house, our life, or our marriage. Not my family.
Even though I’d been estranged from them for years, it had still been a shock to learn my mother wasn’t my mother. I hadn’t even had time for that to fully sink in, and now suddenly there was this other woman who may or may not be my biological mother, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that or whether I was ready to talk to her. Much less needing to step outside my body to have that conversation.
It was so much to sift through all at once, and I wished I could just grab hold of something steady to rest for a moment and catch my breath.
“What if I don’t want to?” I said to Nick, and he looked up from his coffee prep.
“What do you mean?”
“I feel like I’m being rushed into this decision because we’ve been searching for answers, and this may be the person who could finally give them to me. But I don’t know how I feel about contacting her like this and just projecting myself into her living room. Obviously, I want those answers, but I also want to consider the bigger picture.” I hopped up to sit on the counter as I talked. “I literally just found out I was adopted, and now, this may be the woman who—for reasons completely unknown to us—decided to hand me over to someone else to raise. Starting a dialogue with her is kind of a big deal. If this is really my birth mother, I could see it being pretty emotional for both of us. So, wouldn’t it be better to have this conversation face to face?”
“Of course it would, but we don’t know who she is or how to contact her. If what Zeck says is accurate, then she left you a way to get in touch with her, and this is it.”
“Maybe. I don’t know. Even if you handed me a phone and gave me her number and said for me to call her, I’d still probably want to think it over and make sure it’s the right decision. But to know that the only way I can contact her is to leave my body and become some kind of apparition to travel some place completely unfamiliar to me feels vulnerable as hell. I don’t like it. I don’t want to do it.”
Nick came and stood in front of me, reaching to run his fingers into my hair and cup the side of my head. “Aria, you don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with. I thought I’d made that clear during the numerous conversations we’ve had about you talking to my mother.”
“Are you still upset with me that I changed my mind again? I know we kind of left off with things a little tense when we talked on the phone earlier.”
“No,” he said, dropping his hand to rub his knuckles along the side of my jaw. “I wasn’t upset with you, Angel. I was just frustrated with the whole situation. I get that what happened with Lily rattled you, and then having my mother show up here to confront you about it didn’t exactly encourage you to open up to her. I told her not to do that again, by the way.”
“You didn’t have to do that. I don’t want her to feel like she can’t discuss things with me directly. I just don’t feel comfortable discussing my current identity crisis with her, that’s all.”
“Understandable, and I want to apologize again for telling her you were having trouble transitioning. It wasn’t intentional. I was pissed off, and it just sort of slipped out as I was trying to convey to her why I was upset.”
“It’s okay. You explained when we talked earlier, and I get it.”
He kissed my forehead and then went back to the coffee pot, and I blurted out the question that had been on my mind since Gwen left.
“She said you would have killed Lily if she didn’t. Is that true?”
He returned to stand in front of me, placing his hands on the counter on either side of my hips.
“I’ve told you before that I will do whatever it takes to keep you and Sage safe, and Lily was a threat to both of you.”
I nodded, unsure of how else to respond. I wasn’t even sure why I’d asked when I already knew the answer.
“Speaking of threats, I have something for you.” He walked over to the counter by the door and brought me back a white envelope.
“What’s this?
He grinned. “Open it.”
I pulled the papers from the envelope and unfolded them. It took me a second to realize what I was holding.
“Mike surrendered his parental rights?”
Nick nodded. “I had someone take the paperwork over earlier today for his signature. This is a faxed copy, but the original is on its way via courier and should be here tomorrow.”
“Is he dropping the suit for custody?”
“According to my sources, Mike contacted his attorney and asked to withdraw the claim, which was what I’d instructed him to do. It may take a bit to make its way through the process for the court to dismiss it.”
“But once they do, it’s over, right? This paperwork means he’s giving her to us, and he can’t come after her again. Right?”
“This would make it very difficult for him to come after her, yes, and if he ever attempted to do so, he knows I would pay him another visit. One even more unpleasant than the last.”
“Oh my God, Nick! It’s over!” I threw my arms around his neck in relief. “I can’t believe it’s over.”
I released him to look back down at the paperwork I held. “Do we need to file this with the court?”
“That’s up to you, but as of now, my name is still on her birth certificate, and if he drops the suit, there’s nothing to contest that. We should keep this in case we ever need it, but if you’re okay with it, I’d like to leave things the way they are rather than having anything in place to say he is her father, even if he is surrendering his rights as such.”
“No, that’s great. I’d rather there not be any record of him attached to her.”
“Then, I’ll just put this in the safe.”
My phone buzzed with a text, and I pulled it from my pocket and frowned.
“Is there a problem?” Nick asked.
“It’s Haley. She’s upset that both Angie and Cricket know what’s going on, but I haven’t told her yet because I was trying to wait to see her in person. I guess Cricket said something earlier that set Haley off, and now, she’s all in her feelings about being left out. I feel bad. It wasn’t like I was purposely not telling her, you know?”
“I’m sure once you explain everything, she’ll understand. Do you need to call her?”
“No. She’s gonna call me when she gets home and makes sure her girls are sleeping.” I set the phone on the counter and grabbed another carrot.
“How was your class?” Nick asked.
“It was good. I was worried about being behind, but the professor was cool about it. It was an interesting lecture, but the best part was just being normal for a little bit, you know? To escape everything that’s been consuming every hour of the day and just be an ordinary student. An ordinary human being. For a little while, at least.”
“I get that.” Nick smiled, but it was a sad smile. “That’s how it felt when I was human. I reveled in being normal. In being ordinary. The simplicity of that life.”
“I’m sorry that was taken from you and that your time as a human was so brief.”
“It was worth it.” His smile widened. “I’d do it all over again, without question or hesitation.”
“Would you still want to go back?” I asked. “Do you still want to be human?”
He thought about the question for so long that I began to hold my breath waiting for his answer.
“Not now, no. When I sought humanity before, I was searching for where I belonged. I was never content with who I was. With what I was. Until you.” He moved closer and lifted his hand to cup my face. “I loved my life as a human because you were by my side. You are my family. My home. You are where I belong. My place is beside you, and now that you’ve left your world to join mine, it wouldn’t be the same if I was mortal without you.”
“Too bad we can’t both be turned back to human. I worry what will happen with Sage if we’re both immortal, and she’s not.”
Putting his arms around my waist, he pulled me closer. “You don’t know yet that she won’t exhibit any signs. If we find that both your parents are descendants, then you’re a pureblood, which means Sage would likely have at least some abilities and maybe immortality.”
