Aurator, The (21 page)

I felt a heaviness and sadness in my heart as I looked toward him. He met my gaze with an angry face, one that made me not want to leave the car. I paused for a moment, took a deep breath and then stepped out. As I walked up to meet him, he stood.

“Where have you been?” he asked gruffly.

“I had errands to do. What are you doing home? Work isn’t over.”

“Well, I came home to talk with you, but you weren’t home and you didn’t answer your phone. Want to tell me where you’ve been?” He looked at me with an unchanged angry face that dripped with mistrust.

I did want to tell him, everything. He had reason to doubt me. I had been lying for a while now. This was my chance, I could tell him everything, we could be closer, we could be… .

Just then the air around me became colder as I watched his aura grow and darken right before my eyes. I felt sick to my stomach. No! I thought, please no. My eyes filled with tears and I couldn’t utter a word. I was frozen.

“I didn’t think so.” He spoke sharply. “I don’t know what you’re doing, or who you’re doing it with but… well…”

His voice cut out and I watched his face deepen into a shade of red I’d never seen on him.

“I need to leave. I can’t do this right now. I’ll see you later,” he said.

I watched him walk away, fuming as he stumbled on his way to his truck. I struggled inside my numb self to say something, anything, but nothing escaped my lips.

I felt a heaviness and sadness in my heart as I looked toward him. He met my gaze with an angry face, one that made me not want to leave the car. I paused for a moment, took a deep breath and then stepped out. As I walked up to meet him he stood.

“Where have you been?” he asked gruffly.

“I had errands to do. What are you doing home? Work isn’t over.”

“Well, I had come home to talk with you but you weren’t home and you didn’t answer your phone. Want to tell me where you’ve been?” He looked at me with an unchanged angry face that dripped with mistrust.

I did want to tell him, everything. He had reason to doubt me. I had been lying for a while now. This was my chance, I could tell him everything, we could be closer, we could be… Just then the air around me became colder as I watched his aura grow and darken right before my eyes. I felt sick to my stomach. No! I thought, please no. My eyes filled with tears and I couldn’t utter a word. I was frozen.

“I didn’t think so.” He spoke sharply. “I don’t know what you’re doing, or who you’re doing it with but… well…”

His voice cut out and I watched his face deepen into a shade of red I’d never seen on him.

“I need to leave. I can’t do this right now. I’ll see you later,” he said.

I watched him walk away, obviously mad as he stumbled on his way to his truck. I struggled inside my numb self to say something, anything, but nothing escaped my lips.

I watched him drive away and turned to walk up the stairs as I felt the tears flow from my eyes. My body stopped suddenly as if I had hit a brick wall and I spun around in self-defense, but no one was there. I scanned the neighborhood slowly moving from house to house. I couldn’t see anything but I felt as if something or someone was there.

I moved to go inside when I felt a sharp stabbing pain to my rib cage, knocking me back several feet. I hit the ground hard and gasped trying to catch the breath that had been knocked out of me. Facing the ground, I tried to get up but felt something pushing me from behind. Struggling against the pressure I suddenly heard someone breathing. I should have been panicked but I was thinking too clearly. Wait. I wasn’t feeling any heat or coolness behind me. An Aurator?

A sudden chill started in the center of my back and rippled throughout my body. I could feel my muscles tensing in defense as I reached around with exceptional ease against my attacker. I got ahold of a piece of clothing and twisted so quickly that it surprised even me. Finding myself kneeling in front of another person who was mirroring my own stance, I froze. There in front of me was a man whose brown eyes were wide in surprise. His sandy blonde hair was straight and cut very close to the scalp, a military style. What I noticed the most about him, however, was his red aura. Muddied brown as it was, it was definitely red and seemed to arch over me, hovering in anticipation.

I tried to move backwards but he grabbed me. There were no words spoken as we struggled. Each of my moves countered by his, simulating a rapid dance. He turned me away from him with my arm twisted behind my back. He moved his face to my ear and spoke.

“We saw you on TV. You should have known better. We’ve been talking about you. You cannot live. But don’t worry, once you’re gone we’ll get rid of your family too so they don’t miss you. Although watching your husband and you… I doubt he’ll miss you.” And he exhaled the rest of his breath into my ear.

I could feel the protective nature taking over my body.
No
one
will
hurt
my
family
, I thought. With a surge of anger I jumped and was able to flip backwards over his head, landing on the ground behind him and out of his grip. I reached up and grasped his head, instantaneously snapping his neck. Feeling the weight of his body pulling on my grip, I let his head slip through my fingers and he dropped to the ground.

The whole event happened so fast that I was stunned. My breathing was still quick as I returned to my defensive mode, looking around.
Protect.
Protect.
It was all I could think.

Turning my head slightly, I listened. I could hear the faintest sound from… I couldn’t tell where. Then I heard a rumbling and realized a car was approaching. I scrambled to move the body as a cool tingling coursed through my veins… transformation. An unknown car passed as I heard another sound, this time coming from a group of trees at the end of our block. I moved toward the sound as I saw blackness disappear between the trees. Damn it!

Then turning back to the man I saw the last glimpse of his red aura as it disappeared. Shaking my head in disbelief, I dragged the unknown attacker to the side of the house and rushed to my car, thinking only about my girls. As I drove away, I became more and more anxious not having them near me. If anything happened to them what would I do? I couldn’t think about it and accelerated.

I picked up Trina first and then Alex. When I had Abigail I could feel my chest expand as I finally was able to take a deep breath. Feeling thankful to have them, I went back home. I shuffled them safely inside and went to work to get rid of the body.

I called Max and he came over. I took him to where I had left the body. Briefly speaking about what the attacker had said to me, Max nodded as if understanding everything. Without touching the man, Max levitated him in the air and we placed him in the trunk of his car, looking around and wondering how so many people can be so oblivious to what’s going on in their neighborhood. It’s no wonder so many people get away with murder on a regular basis.

I turned to Max, “Thanks for helping. I wasn’t sure what to do with my girls here.”

Walking toward me with a fatherly look, he said, “Now dear, I wouldn’t want you dirtying your hands. You just kill them and I’ll throw out the trash.”

He started to turn, then paused before turning back toward me. “Megan, you need to do what’s best for you and for your daughters. We’ll do our best to help you keep them safe. They know who you are and this may only be the first time you have to deal with such an attack.” From his tone I could tell he didn’t mean safe only from other Aurators and the Caduceus, but also safe from the darkness growing in my own home.

“I know. Maybe keeping my girls here, where they can find them is the wrong thing.” I put my hands up to my face and drew in a deep breath. “What’s the right thing to do?” Max reached up and gently brought my hands back down, cradling them in his own.

“Don’t worry, you will know. But remember that you are probably the only one who can protect them and that’s a tall order. We need you for what you are meant to be, and if something happens to you because of trying to protect your family then all is lost. Just think about it.” He smiled a very concerned look at me before getting into his car and driving away.

Just then Luke’s car pulled into the driveway and I moved to the side as he walked past me silently and went in the house. From the coldness I felt, I was left wondering why he came back home already.

That night I was alone downstairs while Luke and the girls were sound asleep. I had tried to speak with Luke again that night but he wouldn’t engage. I pondered this last thought and decided to get Hippocrates’s journal. Maybe there was something in it that could help guide me better.

I went into my closet where I had hidden it in one of my many shoe boxes. It wasn’t as mystically placed and magically obtained as Max’s hiding place. Still, it seemed fitting for me.

I made a cup of tea and went to the couch. I decided to start at the beginning. I already knew most of it, the story of Asclepius, his birth, so poignant now considering my own birth. As I read of Asclepius’s life with his adoptive Centaur father, I began to draw correlations between his life and my own. Hippocrates did an exceptional job of describing the beginning… our beginning.

Hippocrates wrote of his first purpose, someone who was attempting to kill the first-born males of all families in his community. He had a painful dream that he wrote about and saw faces of children he knew had died and others who had not yet but that he recognized from the community. This frightened him. He had even helped some of these children with his medicine.

He was walking through his city one night when he saw an ominous aura pass by him. He followed it, pulled by an unseen force. He tried to fight the pull and the urges it was creating. As I read about this, my eyes welled up in empathy. I knew what was happening and what he was about to do. And even though every fiber of our being would tell us it was right… there was a piece of us that fought against this weight upon us. But it was undeniable why we were here. We are Aurators and we have a purpose. Our purpose is to remove those most caustic to the world. Our actions do not change the world completely but they may make it a little better, more balanced.

I lay my head down to consider this last thought and drifted off. Sweet dreams. My girls running around in a field of flowers.

I was watching them and turning my face toward the sun to feel the warmth when suddenly the sky turned from bright to dark. I couldn’t see my children anywhere. I started yelling for them… then screaming. I could feel pain in my heart as if it were being stabbed by sadness.

My eyes blurred as I saw a light in front of me. It was out of focus and I struggled to see it. Slowly the object moved toward me and came into view. At first I thought it was the symbol of Asclepius, a bright white rod with a snake moving up and down it. But as it moved closer and came more into view, I saw the image of a man forming.

As he moved closer I could see his curly hair, hanging in ringlets framing his strong face. His face was strong and rugged with deep thoughtful eyes and a beard that crested around his jawline. The image of the man stopped in front of me, and I could see he was wearing a robe cinched up on one shoulder… a toga. His red aura was awe-inspiring as it engulfed the totality of my view, and in one hand he held in front of him the staff adorned by a live moving snake. My breath caught… Asclepius.

He smiled at me, but all I could do was stare.

He nodded once at me, and without moving his lips I could hear him.

“Megan, my sweet love.”

“Asclepius?” But my voice was broken and barely audible.

He nodded in acknowledgement just once.

If I hadn’t been in a dream I’m sure I would be hyperventilating right now. But still I asked, “Am I dreaming?”

This time he shrugged his shoulders.

“We are all in a piece of time and have no control over when that time happens. There is always the possibility for different times to wrap over each other and allow those of us who are from what you believe is the past to see forward and you, in your present time, may see your perception of the past. For this brief moment we share the same time and space.”

“Why now?” I asked.

His face changed from smiling to serious. “You are the one who is to bring all of us together. Our leader. Now is the time. They are coming soon. They have already attempted one attack on you which thankfully was not successful. The Caduceus is meeting now to discuss their next move to eliminate you.” He moved one hand to the side to show another scene just behind him. There was the fight at the Conservatory of Flowers, which I now realized was where my dream had started. Men fought while I stood and watched. Asclepius swept his other arm and I saw the seven pillars of the Greek Asklepion Temple. I saw Nicholai and Aleck fighting others. Then, as soon as it started, he moved his arm again and it disappeared.

“Wait,” I held out my hand. “What else is to happen?”

His face looked discouraged. “I cannot influence the course of what will happen, so I can only show you part of what will be. You need to do the rest. But trust in your destiny, it has already been written.” His form began to move backwards and blur.