Lucy Kelly (11 page)

“Don’t you think fifty years is long enough to wear a hair-shirt because you didn’t die with them?  Anyway, that’s my two cents,” she said, waving a hand in the air between them and went back to eating her burrito.

Markus leaned back in his chair and looked at the female enjoying her meal with such relish.  She had been very blunt with him.  More so than any other, even Arjun. 

Janus and Korus would have liked her immensely.  He still felt a twinge of sadness when he thought of them, but he realized the feeling wasn’t as strong or as sharp as it had been. 

She was right.  The grief was easing.  He would give her words additional thought.  He had plenty of time to make a decision.  Even without life-extending therapy, he would still live for another hundred years - easily. 

Markus got up and went to speak with Arjun.  He thought it would be a good idea to keep his eye on Becky and learn more about her.

Becky was almost done with her burrito when Ishme and Kai walked over and joined her at the table.  Becky was idly watching Addie and Valerie talk to Natalie and Jennifer while debating the wisdom of eating any more.  She had inhaled that burrito and still felt vaguely hungry, but in another minute, her brain would get the message that she was full and she didn’t want to make herself sick.

“Come and get me when you’re ready to leave, guys.  I’m going to see how Addie and Valerie are doing with the newbies.” 

With that, she got up and tossed her paper plate in the garbage and her plastic bottle in the recycle bin.  Taking a new water bottle, she walked over to where the ladies had gathered.

“…aren’t here to take over the Earth,” Becky heard Valerie say as she stepped into their little circle. 

“So, the new girls think you’re going to hand them over to the big bad aliens?  Nah, they’re just in shock.  They saw how I stopped those two big guys.  They’ve read all your books, right?” at Valerie’s nod, she continued, “Yeah, they probably know more about these guys than I do.” 

She pointed her thumb at Valerie with a smirk.  “Valerie here wrote about her psychic visions, not realizing that what she was dreaming really happened.  She didn’t figure that part out until recently.  I haven’t had time to actually read the books…”

Becky figuratively crossed her fingers behind her back, looked over at Valerie again and said, “Sorry, Val, no offence meant.  I’m not much of a reader.”

She turned back to the girls and took another long drink of water.  “Excuse me - pushing the fluids, due to prior fainting like a girl.  Anyway, you saw what I’m up against over there.  Any advice?” she asked the two girls and then stepped on Addie’s foot when it appeared as if she were going to start talking.

“Well, in the books…” began Natalie,

“Let’s call them history books, or historical documents, okay?  Who knew studying history could be so much fun - or have so much sex in it?  Your books do have lots of sex in them, don’t they, Val?  Yes, they do, Johanna told me. 

“Where is Johanna, by the way?  Never mind, we’ll get back to that later.  Natalie and Jennifer have to give me some helpful hints first,” she said, smiling and nodding at them with encouragement.

Natalie and Jennifer both smiled at her.  She could tell they were relaxing at her silly, lighthearted approach.

“Just remember that to the Nephilim, women are important.  They’ll listen to you,” said Jennifer.

Natalie nodded - then added, “That’s right; the society is matriarchal, so you’re the boss.  Moreover, they won’t ever fool around on you, so you don’t have to worry about that.  Once you figure out which set of brothers are yours and you
Join
, they will only want you and they’ll want to please you all the time.”

“But they’re not doormats,” said Jennifer.  “They’ll have opinions and desires, too.  And since you’re their
Join
, you’ll want to please them and make them happy, too.”

“Just one big pile of happy?  No fighting or misunderstandings?  No - I’m from Venus - you’re from Mars stuff?” asked Becky.

That really got them going.  Very soon, both girls were pouring out advice based on knowledge they’d gleaned from reading Valerie’s books.  Becky listened. 

Not only had she accomplished her task of getting them to relax, but what they were saying gave her some good ideas.  When they started winding down, she once again spoke up.

“Cool.  I’m definitely going to put your suggestions to use,” she said and both girls beamed at her.

“So, can I see your birthmarks?” Becky asked.  “You know - the ones that drew you to Valerie’s books and fan club?”

“Oh, sure,” said Natalie.  She turned around and lifted her shirt.  Just at the small of her back was a green, brown, and black wing.  She’d obviously gone to a tattoo artist and had it embellished.

Looking at Jennifer, Becky raised her brow.

“It’s on my boob,” Jennifer whispered.  “It’s shaped like Natalie’s, only it’s black, dark blue and brown.”

“Hey, Arjun,” called out Becky.  They waited for Arjun, who was never too far away from Addie, to come running. 

“What lineages are black, brown and green, or black, brown and dark blue?” asked Becky.  “The green is sort of a dark hunter green, too, like a forest.”

Arjun decided to answer the question first and then find out why later.  “The black, brown and green are the colors of the Empyrean lineage and the black, brown, and dark blue are of the Nirvanian lineage.  Why do you need to know?”

“Never mind that: are any of the guys here of those lineages?” Becky asked.

“Of the Nirvanian, the answer is no.  Their lands lie a distance from ours and we didn’t have time to recruit any before we left. 

“There are three sets of brothers, six men, of the Empyrean lineage here.”

“Great.  Would you find them and bring them over?” she asked.

Arjun looked over at Addie, who just nodded.  He left, returning in a little while with four men.

“The other two are out hiking with Johanna, Kylan, and about twenty others.  They’re learning the area.  Many of the men are pleased to be on solid ground again.  Especially wilderness areas like this.” 

He was now very curious as to what Becky had planned.

“Hi, guys,” she said to them, “what are your names?”

“I am called Jaron and this is my brother Zed.  The others are Hakor and Makor,” spoke up one of the guys. 

None of them could stop staring at all of the women.  Now that they had been allowed to approach, they were drinking them in with their eyes.

“Let me introduce you to Natalie,” she gestured to the woman standing on the left. 

“She is of your lineage, so you are distant cousins.  I know you’re going to make sure she and her friend, Jennifer, are safe and protected.  And that none of the guys here get out of hand after not having seen a female in nearly two hundred years.”

All of the men instantly stood at attention and sobered their expressions.

“It would be an honor to protect one who is of our lineage, as well as her friend.  Thank you for introducing us,
Beleti
Becky.  Are you feeling better?” asked Jaron, the talkative one of the group.

“I’m fully recovered, thank you for asking.  Now, my time here is done.  I’m taking my guys and heading back to the house.” 

She hugged each of the women goodbye and shook hands with the men.  At first, the men didn’t know what she was doing but quickly caught on. 

Becky started walking towards her Jeep.  When she arrived there, Ishme and Kai behind her, she was surprised to find Markus standing beside one of the doors with a suitcase at his feet.

“What’s up?” she asked.

It took Markus a second to recognize the idiom. “I have decided that you, Becky, are an interesting person.  You see a problem or situation and you treat it as a puzzle.  You look for a way to make the pieces fit, solve the equation, or manipulate the outcome.  In a way, you are also a healer; I wish to learn more about you. 

“Left to your own devices, you’ll find a way to work yourself to an early grave.  Therefore, I’ve decided that you need a personal medical advisor.  Arjun agrees with me, as does the
Nam-Nin
.  So you are, how do you say, ‘stuck’ with me,” he finished, with a smug look on his face.

“And I bet that’s your,
‘I’m-going-to-get-my-own-way’
face, isn’t it?  Okay, pile in, then.  You’re taller than either of these guys, so you should ride shotgun.”  Seeing the look on his face, she explained what ‘shotgun’ meant; she opened the driver’s door and got in. 

As soon as she started the engine, all the men jumped and ran to get seated so she wouldn’t leave without them.

“Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride,” Becky said, laughing.  She put her foot down on the gas pedal and took off.

Chapter Eight

On the two-hour drive back to Chicago, Becky asked both Kai and Ishme about their growing-up years.  What kind of boys were they?  What kind of mischief did they get into?  Stories about them also included stories about their brothers. 

After the first hour, the guys switched and asked Becky questions about her childhood.  She did her best to avoid talking about it because it was mostly an unhappy period in her life.  She tried to make light of the hard times she had gone through and deflect them with another question about HeVan.  Glancing at Markus, she could see that she wasn’t fooling him. 

It was when she got to the time she met Addie, that she was able to elaborate.  She told funny stories about Addie and her in college.  Then she left to start her own business with the consulting fees she’d earned while she was in school, while Addie had gone on to graduate school.  Luckily, she was able to expand on those times.

She glossed over the work she did for the government, making it sound like she worked for local police only. 

Finally, they arrived at her house.  She pressed the button on the remote for the first garage door to open and pulled in.  She owned two cars, the jeep, and a two-seater convertible that she only drove in the summer.  The garage had four bays but she used only two. 

Her desire for family had her owning a huge house with six bedrooms and a four-car garage on a ten-acre lot.  It was the remnant of a farm.  Most of the farms this close to Chicago had been converted into suburbs.  She had been ecstatic when she located and bought this mini-estate. 

She lived there all alone, though.  She didn’t even have a pet or houseplants; she worked too many hours and kept killing them off by forgetting to water them.  She finally gave up and stopped having any plants.

“Here we are, home sweet home,” she said.

The door to the mudroom opened and Rapha appeared in the doorway.  They all started to get out of the Jeep and walk into the house.  Becky stayed inside the vehicle for just a moment.

She wanted to take a quick shower.  She looked down, realized she was still wearing the clothes she had on yesterday, which she had been up all night in them and spent time lying in the dirt, too.  She looked around and then, disguising the move to appear as if she were looking around for something, lifted up her arms to sniff.  Yep, a shower and clean clothes were definitely in order.

Getting out of the car and shutting the door, she followed the guys through the mudroom into the kitchen.

“How’s the patient?” Becky asked Rapha as she hung the Jeep’s keys on the hook by the door.

“Anxious to get out of bed, but he needs to stay put until tomorrow.  Then he can move around.  I have good news; Catherine seems to be warming up to my brothers, and I going over there.  Now that Markus is here, you no longer need me in residence,” said Rapha.

“Do you need a lift to the house?” asked Becky.

“No, I called a cab.  I know you have work you need to get to,” Rapha said.

“Yes, I do, and I had better get to it, but first I want to take a quick shower.  I’m feeling really grungy and dirty.  I’ve been in these clothes since yesterday.  I honestly don’t see how you guys can stand to be around me right now,” she said, as she started up the back stairs.

“Show Markus to an empty bedroom, okay?  I’m sure Addie gave you the tour when you arrived.”

As soon as she shut the door to her bedroom, she began stripping off her clothes.  She threw the clothes in the general direction of the hamper in the corner.  Becky would be the first to admit that a domestic goddess she was not.  She paid people to clean her house and do her laundry, mow her lawn and rake her leaves.  She’d much rather spend time in the depths of computer code than digging weeds or pulling clothes out of the deep well of the washing machine.

She decided to cut time by taking a fast shower.  She remembered the first time she’d ever heard of a Navy shower.  One of her foster parents pinched every penny he could.  She could still hear him—“I ain’t see’n my hard-earned money go down the drain for some ‘good-fer-nothin-kids’ — he would say.  He’d put timers on all the showers - forget taking a bath.  Therefore, she had perfected the Navy shower: get wet all over in one minute, then turn off the water and wash everything, including her hair.  Then use the remaining two minutes of water for rinsing off.

She didn’t turn the water off in between getting wet and getting clean anymore and she had stretched her showers to ten or fifteen minutes.  She had never learned to take a long shower after that.  When she wanted to relax, she soaked in her Jacuzzi tub.  She looked longingly at the tub, it was big enough to fit four or five people and had jets everywhere.

It was one of her favorite luxuries.  It was unfortunate that she hadn’t used it in over two months.  Jumping in and out of the shower, she wrapped one towel around her head and then used another to dry off.  She tossed it into the hamper and reached for her lotion.  Fall was heading into winter and her skin always dried up in the cold weather.  She liked to keep her skin soft and moisturized.

She pulled the towel off her head, wiped her hands on it, and threw it towards the hamper, too.  Walking over to the mirror, she gave her face a quick examination.  Makeup or no makeup, she considered as she combed out her hair.  No makeup, she decided.