The Lost Garden (The Lost Garden Trilogy Book 1) (9 page)

“True again.”

“Not to mention you’ve lived through most of the history that I’ve studied. You could probably settle many arguments among scholars.”

“And spoil all of the fun? Then what would they do with their time?”

She had stopped and was reading through the original Apocrypha, written in ancient Hebrew. A language Knight knew well. “You are avoiding my question.”

“I’m not avoiding it.”

“You haven’t answered yet,” he said.

“Some questions need time for the right answers.”

He took her elbow and spun her around. He was strong and she knew it. She could have resisted, but she allowed herself to be handled by him. “Enough riddles, Jessima IL Eve. Why do you keep calling me the Chosen One?”

“There is a prophecy among the Daughters that one will be born to save the Earth. It is an ancient prophecy, one we hardly believed. Yet, the Mother Daughter has been having the dreams again steadily for many years. She was sure the prophecy would be fulfilled.”

“Who is the Mother Daughter?”

“She is our mother.”

“She’s mother to all of you?”

“Yes.”

“Over a course of how many years?”

“Thousands,” she said, shrugging. “When we lose one to accident or battle, we get another.”

“How many of you are there?” he asked.

“There were eighteen, but we have recently lost one.”

“You are all women?”

“Yes.”

“Why?” he asked.

She shrugged. “It is our fate as Cherubim,” said Jess. There was a monotone quality to her voice, as if she had thought this or voiced it many times.

“How old is the Mother Daughter?”

“She is old beyond our knowing.” Jess suddenly stopped and cocked her head, listening. Her body perfectly still. Knight found himself listening as well, but could hear nothing. Finally, she slid the book back and continued. “I think not even the Mother Daughter knows how old she is.”

“Where did she come from?”

“She is a daughter of Eve.”

“You mean, as in Adam and Eve?”

Jess smiled at him. “We know her as Evelina.”

“This is for real?”

“Everything I have told you is real. The garden is real. The Tree of Life is real. You have seen them in your dreams. Dreamscapes I have seen in the form of your paintings. Why do you find it so hard to believe that Adam and Eve, too, were real?”

He did find it hard to believe. Everything within him rebelled at the idea that man and woman were first created by God and set into the Garden of Eden. Yet, he suspected that there might be much more to the story. Knight thought of man’s history as a very complex puzzle. So many pieces were unknown and he suspected the Genesis story in the Bible could be simply another piece, perhaps a corner piece, in the evolutionary history of man.

“What about evolution? The earth is over billion years old. We have Neanderthals that date back hundreds of thousands of years.”

“It is a long story, some of which we are not meant to understand. Do you wish for me to get into it now?”

Actually, he did. Then again, he didn’t. He didn’t know. He wanted all of her answers immediately. He wanted her physically as well. He had never in his life been so physically attracted to another person, but he knew that would be the case if he ever met his dream woman. The problem was, he had never thought he would. Although it left a hole in his heart and made him feel empty with longing, he had accepted it. All his suppressed desires and urges now raged. He took a deep breath.

Easy, Doctor,
he told himself.
She could probably crush your spinal column if she wanted to.

“Will there be time later to discuss this later?” he asked.

She looked up briefly, thinking. Her white streak of hair hung just inches above her blue eyes. “Our destination is far. We will be spending much time together in the journey.”

This sent a thrill through him in more ways than one. “Then, let’s save that one for later. For now I will accept that you believe you are a direct descendant from a daughter of Eve.”

“Eve is my grandmother.”

“Of course,” he said. “Are they alive as well?”

“No. They are not Cherubim. They are not Guardians. They have passed over. Their bodies forever sealed in the great ship.”

She didn’t elaborate on the great ship and Knight let that one slide. One Biblical miracle at a time, he thought, because he was in no mood to get into a discussion about Noah’s Ark. He was aware of the legend that the remains of Adam and Eve were taken aboard Noah’s Ark. Long ago, as the dreams of Eden had taken hold of Knight’s life, he was never one to immediately discount the old Biblical stories. For him, Eden had been all too real, at least in his dreams.

“Why is it the fate of the Cherubim, the Daughters of Eve, to forever stand guard over the Garden of Eden?” he asked.

She seemed preoccupied. Her thoughts were elsewhere. She seemed to be listening to a conversation in another room, or outside. It was frustrating at best, but he pushed on. “The Garden needs to be protected. In particular, the Tree of Life.”

“Who do you protect it from?” he asked.

She hesitated. “From those who do not understand. From those seek fortune and fame at the expense of all life on Earth.” She paused.

“What happens if the Tree of Life is destroyed?” he asked.

“The tree is the life force of all life.”

“This is crazy!”

She shrugged. She didn’t care what he thought was crazy and what he didn’t. She was looking out his dark windows. She even sniffed the air once, her nostrils flaring. He saw that her hand had unconsciously gone to the hilt of some weapon at her hip. She did all of this unconsciously, her movements slow. He frowned.

“There is another group of people who seek the Tree of Life,” she said. “They are known as the Fallen.”

“Who are they?”

“Daughters who ate from the Tree of Good and Evil.”

“Ah, the other tree,” he said, smiling.

She wasn’t looking at him and didn’t see him smile, which was just as well. “Yes, the other tree. The Forbidden Tree. The tree, that even to this day we Cherubim leave alone, although its ripe fruit is alluring and its shade welcoming. Those who ate of this tree are the fallen Cherubim. Some of those who ate of the tree were given immortality as well.”

“But Adam and Eve ate of the tree, as well.”

“Yes, and they were banished from Eden and stripped of their fellowship with who we know as the Creator. Both died when very old. The fallen Cherubim, however, were given a different punishment. A cursed eternal life, forced to feed on the dead and never live in the light. Their souls are tormented, trapped in bodies that long to die, but can’t.”

“Vampires?”

“No, but they are the source of many of the vampire legends. The Fallen are able to reproduce, though. They do not have fangs and do not turn into bats. They do not kill, but feast on the rotting corpses of anything they can find. They lurk in the shadows, scavenging among the freshly dug graves, working in slaughterhouses. It is a miserable existence and they are foul, disgusting creatures. They cannot even remember who they were and what they had been. Except for one. She seeks to organize them and is the strongest of them all. She is the sister of the Mother Daughter.”

“This is getting confusing,” he said. “So, she was your aunt?”

“In essence. She ate of the fruit and tempted the others. She was always resentful of her destiny to be a Guardian. Well, she got what she wanted and she brought many of the Daughters down with her.”

“Seems I heard this story before. The fallen angels. Fallen Cherubim.”

“Yes. The similarities are striking,” she said. “Now, this one has not been fully transformed and has made it her lifelong quest to return to the Tree of Life after her banishment.”

“What’s her name?”

“Sulina the Fallen.”

“Catchy,” said Knight. “So, what do they want with the Tree of Life? Will it heal them as well from the curse?”

“The Tree heals wounds and can even bring back the dead. However, it cannot erase the curse that has been placed on the Fallen. No, Sulina seeks the Tree for other reasons.”

She paused, and cocked her head.

Knight said, “This is the part where you tell me the other reasons.”

She turned to him, lost in her own thoughts, or distracted by something outside. He couldn’t tell which. “The Tree of Life is not called that for nothing. The Tree can create life that has never existed on this planet before.”

“I’m not following.”

“Sulina seeks to find the Tree to create life in her own image. An endless army of her own warriors and perhaps of foul creatures too hideous to describe. All to serve and worship her and do her bidding.”

Knight tried to come to terms with what she was saying. “It’s a big cloning, but better, because you can create something that never existed before. Like God did.”

“Yes,” she said. “Like God did.”

“I‘m beginning to see why it’s so important for you ladies to protect the Tree. Has she made an attempt on it in the past?”

“Twice, but she was thwarted. She organized many of the Fallen, but they are a hapless bunch, prone to fighting among themselves with short-attention spans. I know she seeks to someday bring a real army to the Mountain of God.”

“And, if she does?”

“We are prepared,” said Jess. “There is one other thing about the Fallen. They can find me.”

“What do you mean?”

“They can smell me and any other Daughter.”

He sniffed. “You smell fine.”

She stood, her hand coming to rest on the pommel of her short sword. “The oil in my system gives me away. For those who know the scent, it is a trail that leads them to me, or any of the Daughters. When they’re close enough, I can smell them as well. The oil enhances our senses and I can smell the rotting stench of death that forever emanates from the bodies of the Fallen.”

He didn’t like the direction this conversation had suddenly taken. “Why are you telling me this now, Jess?”

“Because they’re here.”

* * *

She watched him move quickly to his dark sliding glass door that led to a wooden deck with what must have been a breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean in the daytime. Now, all was black through the window, save for the blinking lights of an offshore oil rig.

He stepped to one side of the glass, instead of exposing himself fully. Looking out at an angle, he reported, “There’s only a half moon tonight. Beach is dark. I don’t see anything.”

He didn’t doubt her, she could tell. He was just reporting what he saw.

The stink of something rotten, as if something had died in the next room, was strong in the air. The smell of decay was mixed with something else that always reminded her of bad cologne, as if the Fallen doused themselves with body oils to mask the stench of their rotten core. However, her experience told her that few mortals could detect the Fallen, although some probably did become ill or nauseous for an unknown reason. Most experiences were chalked up to a mild case of food poisoning, but they had actually been exposed to noxious odors from a Fallen.

“They are out there. The stench is strong. They are many.”

“Wait,” he said, and pressed closer to the door frame. “I see movement on the beach. There appears to be a small crowd.”

“They attack in crowds.”

“How did they find you so quickly?”

“I have stayed in one place for far too long. This is the curse of the Cherubim. Away from the security of the mountain, we are fair game to the Fallen. Sometimes they attack, sometimes they just follow, but always, their ultimate goal is to dispose of the Daughters. I cannot dawdle too long in any one spot.”

“Dawdle?”

“Do not make light of the situation, Evan Knight. They have come to kill me and they will kill you as well. Then they will partake of our flesh.”

“Then I’ll think unappetizing thoughts,” he said, stepping away from the window. “But I have no intention of losing you just yet, Jessima IL Eve.”

Knight disappeared down into the studio and returned with a long Tai Chi sword. He also had tucked two pistols into his belt. Jessima had already withdrawn her long dagger, which looked more like a machete than anything. It was a weapon she had purchased from the Daughters’ contact in Los Angeles. One of the first things for any Daughter to do when traveling was to arm herself against the Fallen. She, too, had a .38 Luger tucked away in the small of her back.

Jess watched Knight slip back to the sliding glass door. His face was calm. He was breathing fine, completely unruffled by the fact that a dozen or more blood-thirsty immortals were poised to attack.

Yes,
she thought again.
Maybe he is the Chosen One.

It was going to be something she would have to accept. A mortal doing the job of a Cherubim.

“Is there anything I should know about the Fallen?” he asked. “Any weaknesses?”