Sinister Seraphim of Mine (Overworld Chronicles Book 8) (15 page)

He looked at me. "Let any man who has not sinned cast the first stone."

"Just because you're ancient doesn't mean you're allowed to quote verses pointing out my double standards."

Jeremiah said nothing, but he looked a little too smug for my comfort. We boarded a levitator to take us back to the sublevel where Thomas was so we could talk to him about freeing Kassus. He would probably go along with the idea, but deep down I couldn't shake the awful feeling that freeing such a dangerous man might put another weapon in Daelissa's already overpowered arsenal.

Chapter 13

Elyssa

After Justin left to go speak with Kassus, Elyssa took Michael aside. "Is mother coming?"

He nodded. "What did you want to have a family talk about?"

Thomas had left the room with Christian and Nightliss, leaving her and Michael alone inside. Elyssa made sure the door was shut and turned to her brother. "What do you know about our parents' past?"

Michael grunted. "Which version?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, the version they told us, or the truth." He folded his arms and leaned against the wall. "I know Thomas saved Mom—"

"Why do you call him by his first name, but call Leia Mom?" Elyssa asked.

He paused and stared for a moment. "I didn't realize I did that." A shrug. "Thomas saved Mom from a vampire, they got married, and had us a long time after, or so they said."

Elyssa twisted her lips. "I met someone claiming to be our sister."

Michael went ramrod straight. "Explain."

"When we fought the Exorcists at the Church of the Divinity, I battled a ninja. When the fight was won, I asked her to join us, but she claimed her father, Thomas Borathen, abandoned her and her brothers to die when he could have saved them." A pang gripped her chest. "For all I know, it was a lie meant to throw me off guard, but I promised myself I'd talk with the family."

"Thomas and Mom—Leia—have been silent about their past." He looked at Elyssa. "I think it's time we made them come clean."

As if on cue, Thomas and Leia stepped through the door. Elyssa hugged her mother.

"I must say I'm impressed by the Slade boy's restraint," Thomas said, taking a seat at the table in the middle of the room. "There's hope for us yet if he continues to mature."

"I hardly think Elyssa brought us together to talk about her boyfriend," Leia said, taking a seat beside him.

Michael sat across the table from their parents. Elyssa took the seat to his right. She couldn't bring herself to smile. It wasn't as if her parents had never hidden things from her, Michael, and her late brother, Jack, but omitting details of an entire other family seemed a little excessive.

Leia's violet eyes found Elyssa's. "What did you want to discuss?"

"The daughter and two sons you had before us." Elyssa watched her mother for any hint of a flicker, but careful observation wasn't necessary.

Her mother reared back as if she'd been slapped. Her eyes filled with moisture. A rare shocked look flashed through Thomas's face. He hugged Leia and pulled her close.

"How could you possibly know?" Thomas said.

Elyssa shook her head. "That's not important."

"I had hope to spare you," Thomas said, no anger in his voice.

"The sins of our past," Leia said in a quiet voice. She looked pale as a ghost.

Elyssa reached across the table and gripped her mother's hands. "We deserve to know the truth."

Thomas sighed. "Your mother and I met during the American Revolutionary War."

"I was only five at the time," Leia said. "Thomas rescued me and my siblings from a vampire brood."

"You never told us this," Michael said, a hint of accusation in his voice. "You said you met after the war, joined the Templars, and married."

"I glossed over the truth," Thomas said. "This particular vampire was kidnapping human women and impregnating them to create his own dhampyr brood. During one of my scouting missions, I stumbled upon his operation and nearly died for it. After I put an end to it, Leia and I kept in touch over the decades and married about twenty five years later."

Elyssa had personally witnessed one vampire brood operation in Colombia. The vampire kept the pregnant women locked in an underground facility. There were two different ways to make dhampyrs. One involved taking pregnant women and turning them into vampires. If they and the fetus survived, the baby was often a dhampyr. The other method, far more rare since most vampires were sterile, was impregnating a woman directly, or a female vampire being impregnated.

Leia squeezed her eyes shut and wiped away her tears. She seemed to reach inside for resolve, taking a deep breath and opening her eyes. "Our daughter, Phoebe, was born in eighteen twenty-five; the twins, Abraham and Isaac in eighteen twenty-seven."

Elyssa was bursting with questions.
Twin brothers? What did they look like? What were their personalities like?
She forced herself to remain quiet.

Leia continued. "The boys joined the Templars as soon as they could. Phoebe, the only dhampyr, hated being so different and wanted to be normal. She spent years trying to blend into human society, but ultimately gave up. She returned to us and joined the Templars. When the first rumblings of the Civil War began, Phoebe uncovered a plot by rich industrialists—a consortium of vampires and demon spawn—who planned to incite war in the hopes it would wreck the nation, leaving them free to create their own little empires, using humans like cattle to feed from."

"I read about that in Templar World History," Elyssa said. "The lycans and Arcanes tried to stop the war from starting but couldn't. It nearly started an Overworld civil war."

Thomas nodded. "During one large battle between us and the vampires, we were attacked by a large force of vampires. Phoebe saw a vampire brood sire and wanted us to go after him, but her move would have left our flank vulnerable. She convinced her brothers to go with her and went anyway. At that moment, the demon spawn joined the attack with hellhounds and crawlers. I had to call a retreat.

"I didn't realize our children weren't with the group until someone pointed them out. The last thing I saw was Phoebe, Abraham, and Isaac fighting for their lives." He stopped speaking, icy eyes looking into the past, and swallowed hard.

Leia reached over and squeezed his hand. "Thomas wanted to go after them, but our forces would have been slaughtered. By the time the Arcanes brought reinforcements, our children were overrun." Leia sniffed, obviously fighting back tears. "We later found scraps of their uniforms."

"I personally ended the lives of those responsible," Thomas said. "But we lost our family. It took us over a century before we could even bear the thought of starting over."

Michael's mouth hung slightly open as if he couldn't believe what he'd heard. Elyssa felt like she'd been blindsided by a city bus.

"Did you read my report about the battle at the church of the Divinity?" Elyssa said.

"Of course," Thomas said.

Leia looked at her with uncertainty.

Elyssa told them the one thing she hadn't included in her report. "The Exorcist ninja I fought claimed to be the daughter of Thomas Borathen."

Leia gasped and gripped Thomas's arm so hard, he winced.

"What, precisely, did she say?" Thomas asked.

The ninja's fierce words were burned into memory. "Thomas Borathen, my own father, left me and my brothers for dead when he could have saved us." Despite the awful story, Elyssa felt hope. "The Exorcist ninja must be Phoebe. We have to convince her you didn't abandon her and her—our brothers."

"Agreed," Michael said, his face once again impassive. "Not only does she sound like an impressive fighter, but she might have information we could use to take down the Exorcist organization."

His reason sounded so cold and impersonal. Elyssa had selfish reasons. Ever since losing her brother, Jack, she'd felt a void in her life. Maybe having an older sister would fill that empty space.
Her fighting technique is amazing.
Having a brother was great, but the thought of a sister she could be best friends with sounded wonderful. Michael was great, but he couldn't appreciate shopping for cute clothes.

"How can you be sure this is our daughter?" Leia's hands tightened into white-knuckled fists. "It could be a cruel trick." She looked hopeful and frightened all at the same time.

"Who else would know about your first family?" Elyssa asked.

"Templars who served with us during the war," Thomas said. "Many have gone on to serve with other units, but there are at least five I can think of." He put a hand to his chin. "The Templars had far fewer numbers in the southern regions of the United States at the time. I commanded a battalion of soldiers. By the end of the conflict, it was reduced by about half. Even so, none of the soldiers I served with would have reason to employ such deceit."

"Daelissa would," Michael said. "She was the Divinity. She must have known about your family. Perhaps she thinks it will bait you into the open."

"I hadn't thought of that." Elyssa's heart fell.

"It may be an act of desperation by her or her cronies to end the rebellion." Michael shrugged. "I'm not saying we discount the possibility of this woman being our sister, but we need to use caution."

Elyssa knew caution would be crucial no matter what, considering how clearly Phoebe expressed her hatred for Thomas during the battle for the Exorcist church. Somehow she had to convince her sister—her heart raced at the thought of the word—that she could come home.

A knock on the door signaled Justin's return from the prison cells.

"We'll discuss this later," Thomas said, obviously not wanting to air dirty laundry in front of Justin, even though he already knew about Phoebe's existence.

"Don't do anything rash, Ninjette," Michael said, touching her hand. "We need to think this through before rushing after her."

"I won't," Elyssa said with a frown. "You know I'm a planner." She got up and opened the door. Justin and Jeremiah stood outside. The ancient Arcane once again wore the guise of Jeremiah Conroy, gray hair, goatee, and facial structure. "Any luck?"

Justin stepped inside. His eyes took in the family gathering but he didn't flinch or flee like he might have in the past. "We made a tentative deal with him."

Elyssa repressed a proud smile. This man was a far cry from the boy she'd met in high school, although he still retained all the qualities she loved about him. They'd been through so much together, but he hadn't lost his optimistic outlook on life or his nerdish charm.

"He wants freedom and amnesty," Thomas said.

Justin nodded. "He didn't ask for amnesty, but I assumed it went hand in hand with the freedom part." He dropped into a chair at the head of the table. "I think we need a few more strings attached. This guy might have a lot more useful information we could pick from his brain, plus if we keep him close, we don't have to worry about him running off to Daelissa at the first chance."

"Do you think he'd go back to her?" Thomas asked.

Justin leaned his chin on his hand and looked up. After a moment, he shook his head. "It would be risky for him. She might think he's been flipped—a double agent—and kill him on sight. He was also a colossal failure in her eyes, and she doesn't dig failure."

"I concur," Jeremiah said. "The boy's reasoning is sound."

Justin didn't bristle like he used to at the word "boy", though he did roll his eyes a little.

"Who will babysit him?" Michael asked. "The man is powerful enough to escape if he wants, without a significant escort."

"None needed," Justin said. "If my hunch about Daelissa killing him is right, all we have to do is put out the word that he's a free man, and she'll have him hunted down."

"He has nowhere else to go," Thomas said. His lips pressed together in an expression Elyssa knew meant he was impressed. "We offer him asylum, so to speak."

"Yep." Justin grinned. "I suppose it's possible he could sneak away, but I'll tell him I've implanted him with a tiny bit of Murk near his heart that'll allow me to track him anywhere."

"You can do that?" Michael asked.

Justin shrugged. "Hell if I know. I'm just gonna lie to him. If it doesn't work, we don't lose anything so long as we get the info on the aether pods and the portal blocker."

Michael almost smiled.

"You have my authorization," Thomas said. "I'll have a scroll drawn up within the hour."

Justin nodded. "Excellent. Now, if you'll excuse me for a minute." He stood, took Elyssa's hand and led her to the side. "I assume you talked to your parents about the Exorcist ninja?"

Elyssa nodded. "Her name is Phoebe. She and identical twin brothers were assumed killed during the Civil War."

"Another one of Daelissa's little plots that exploded out of control," Jeremiah said from across the room.

Elyssa felt a flash of shock. "The American Civil War was caused by Daelissa?"

The Arcane shrugged. "I fought with your parents." He nodded toward Thomas. "I remember your girl and those two boys of yours. You might remember me as Beauregard Smith."

Thomas stared for a moment. "You've worn a number of faces over the centuries. Any others we should know about?"

"Mayhap," Jeremiah said, employing his genteel accent. "But not now."

"How did Daelissa cause the Civil War?" Justin asked.

"She didn't cause it so much as she blew on sparks that already existed." Jeremiah's lip curled into a snarl. "She convinced the vampires and Daemos that the Overworld Conclave was specifically designed to shift the balance of power to the Arcanes. Luckily, she was still relatively weak, nowhere near the strength she is now, or she might have helped in the battles herself."

"She must have thought that breaking apart the Overworld would make the various factions easier to control once she regained her strength." Thomas pursed his lips. "I've studied her in depth and find it hard to believe she is so cunning and forward thinking when one considers how she fights her battles."