Transcending the Legacy (13 page)

Daniel knows him?

Tom shakes his head. “No thanks necessary, Daniel.”

Daniel notices all of us looking at him, wondering what comes next.
He looks back at Tom. “This is the team I told you about, the one that just came back from Japan. You already know Sebastian.”

Sebastian side
steps me to approach Tom. They shake hands and Sebastian relays, “Tom, it has been too long.”

Tom replies, “It has, but I am still alive and kicking.”

He looks just as old as Ezra,
partially graying hair and thin lines of age around his eyes.

The colonists take turns looking at us, then looking at each other.
Tom recognizes their exchange and our apprehension and tries to quell the tension between us. “Pardon our reaction, it is just that we have heard about you and what you all have been through in Kyoto and beyond the veil. I am Tom Porter. Welcome to our colony,” he says graciously.

I wonder when Daniel told them about us. I couldn’t see Briggs’ giving them any details specifically because he didn’t know us, didn’t understand what and why things happened to us in Japan and beyond the veil.

He looks at Ezra, points at him, then turns back to face Daniel. “Is this Ezra?”

Ezra steps up and shakes his hand. “Ezra Kahn.”
He angles toward me to make introductions, “This is my daughter, Jesca Gershon Kahn.”

Tom folds his arms across his chest and scratches his bristled chin as he says, “Well, she was right.
She was insistent that you all might have been in some trouble. Planned to leave the compound to find you in the morning actually.”

Who is?

Tom looks at the woman to his left as he continues, “She said that she needed to get to Jesca.”

The only woman that comes to mind couldn’
t have possibly come here looking for me, because she is dead. My mother would have been the only one coming to look for me.

“Now, now
, dear. There is no truth in that and you know it,” a mature and familiar vivacious voice rises from behind the cluster of colonists behind Tom. The colonists part exposing the woman that opened her home and her heart to me in Florida, Ms. Olivia.

I am speechless as she
comes to stand next to Tom. Luke pushes past us and practically falls into the open arms of his mother. His staggering voice is both tender and maddened as he says, “Ma, what are you doing here? You should be in Georgia at the mounds. Daniel, you said she was there!”

Daniel
replies, “She was. Olivia, you put yourself in danger coming here. The Dwellers...”

Luke starts in, “You could have been taken by one of them
, Ma. Did you come alone?”

Olivia pulls back from Luke and holds him at arm
’s length, taking his face in her hands. “No one was going to do any taking from me and yes, I did come alone. I projected here.”

Luke’
s shoulders sagged. “You jumped!” He looks back at Daniel somewhat relieved, but also surprised. “She jumped.”

Daniel acknowledges, “Your abilities have returned
, Olivia?”

Olivia bows her head and looks from Daniel to me. “I felt you coming
, Jesca. I knew my abilities had returned the second you landed in the U.S.”

Tom breaks in speaking directly to Luke, “She arrived
a few hours ago. Told us she came from your facility, Daniel. She told us that she was expecting you and a team of guardians. I thought she was crazy, until Briggs communicated in through the walkie-talkie that you needed shelter. You have a very intriguing mother, Luke.”

Olivia angles her head to Tom and winks.
Her gaze returns to Luke and she raises one eyebrow, “It’s nice to see you too, son.”

Luke hugs her again and I watch as a delicate smile spread across her face.
Luke speaks gingerly, “Sorry, Ma. I just can’t believe you came here alone.”

Olivia
replies, “Balthazar was insistent on coming along for my safety, driving me, but I told him that it would take too long and that we needed him to stay at the mounds with the others.” Olivia makes eye contact with Sebastian. “You have raised two strong sons, Sebastian.”

Sebastian bows his head before commenting, “Thank you. Everyone is alright though?”

“We have lost a few people in the colony recently. The beings, they have begun attacking more aggressively,” adds Olivia.

Worried that it might have been someone we know I ask, “Who were they?”

Olivia assures, “None of your families have been put in harm’s way yet. They were civilians that had come to us for help.” Olivia looks at Daniel. “The Perkins family. The son and father are gone.”

Daniel places his hands on his hips and shakes his head, frustrated by their loss.

Tom
acknowledges, “We have noticed a spike in the attacks as well.”

The colonists behind him nod and whisper regarding their witnessing the attacks as well.

Briggs speaks up, “We lost many in our compound before we left.
The Dwellers are...”

Tom looks at him curiously, “Dwellers?”

The others behind him look at each other oddly as well.

Briggs’ rolls his
eyes a little and points to me. “She coined the term for these bastard beings.”

Tom and his colony look to me for some kind of response.

Recollecting the image of Briggs’ soldiers being ravaged and diseased by them, I mumble, “They occupy and dwell within us until our bodies are no longer necessary for their use. Dwellers seemed to make sense to me.”

This is your chance
, Jes.

I leap to the opportunity, “Before we got here, we were attacked.”

Tom’s eyes are trained on me as all the others behind him gasp from shock and concern. Tom asks eagerly, “How did you get away?”

I’m about to tell them how
the Rephaim defended us, when Briggs’ cuts me off. “Our caravan, we had plenty of ammunition to hold them back…”

Jerk.
He is sidestepping what happened. I look right at him. “Seriously?”

He looks at me sideways angrily while he continues explaining, “We got back into the truck, the safest place other than a compound.”

Ezra leans over to me and whispers warningly, “Jes.”

Being the smart man that he is,
Tom holds his palm up to Briggs and says, “Just stop.” Briggs holds his tongue as Tom continues, “Jason, even in training camp you talked too much.”

I eye Briggs’ as he bites his lip and lowers his head, somewhat defeated by Tom’s words. Tom and Briggs’ served together in the military?

Tom peers back at me, “She has something on her mind and I want to hear it.”

Everyone is watching me, waiting for me to respond.

“Two of Briggs’ men, our truck’s drivers were occupied by them.
They drew us away from Briggs’ truck, planned to occupy us or kills us, I’m not sure. Briggs found us and a full on attack occurred. We held the Dwellers off with our guns, but the rest of Briggs’ men were taken. All but one.” I point to the sole soldier lagging behind, gun drawn. I continues, “Then a mass of Dweller occupied humans found us. Both the occupied humans and raw Dwellers beings were attacking us. Then-” I pause as I try to say the right words so I don’t sound insane. “...these enormous men rushed the Dwellers and killed them.”

Tom shifts on his feet.
“Wait, men killed the Dwellers?”

“Large men. Very large men.”

Tom squints at me skeptically. “I’m a large guy and I don’t stand a chance against a Dweller, let alone a pack of them.”

Agh
, screw sounding sane!

“
Rephaim, giant men with supernatural abilities. They came to our rescue and saved us!”

Tom’
s forehead crinkles even more. “Rephaim.”

The colonists behind Tom turn to each other restlessly, but Tom hushes them and looks back at me skeptically. “Okay, that sounds insane,” he says.

“It is true!” I plead.

I can’t help but notice Briggs’ smirk plastered on his face just toying with me.

I’m about to burst with anger from his I-told-you-so look when I redirect my words to Tom and his colony. “Look, you took us in. The Dwellers are after all of us! They are trying to stop our pack of guardians from getting to Georgia. Did Briggs’ tell you that when he asked you to take us in?”

Briggs’ back pedals, “I was going to tell him.”

I keep my eyes pinned to Tom and inch closer to him. “Galactic intersection, climatic and elemental shifts, Copula implantations, Dwellers. You are really going to stand there and tell me that what I’m saying sounds insane?”

Ezra circles around me noticing my close proximity to Tom as I confront him face to face.

Tom halfway turns to quiet the colonists’ ranting behind him now.

One of the colonists yells,
“She is crazy! Giant beings protecting us! They plan to take over just like the dark beings!”

Another calls out,
“Get them out of here! The girl said it herself! The beings are after them, not us! They are going to draw them to here!”

Angered by their ignorance, I yell,
“We spoke to them! They mean us no harm!” I push against Ezra’s hands on my shoulders and holler louder over their growing voices, “They could have easily killed us, but they didn’t! They protected us! They are not our enemy! They want to help us!”

Briggs gets in my face. “See what you did!
That was stupid!” Briggs turns on me and tries to talk to Tom, but he is trying to calm all of the agitated colonists.

I have to do something, say something to get them to listen. “They are guarding us right now!”

Everyone quiets except Briggs. “Great,” he scoffs under his breath.

Tom’
s eyes widen. “You brought them here?” He looks at Briggs’ full of rage and ready to pounce him. Briggs’ puts his hands on his hips and glares at me.

Our team has now joined in on the yelling match,
defending what we have seen to the colonists. Daniel has gotten between Briggs’ and Tom to keep them from getting physical.

I watch e
verything around me unfold with no way of showing them what we have seen the Rephaim, Ira, do.

I’m watching Tom yell at Briggs when a thought comes to me.
That is it. I need to show him.

My ability to project may
not work, but I need to try.

Breathing deeply I close my eyes and center my thoughts on Ira. I remember him standing outside of the tunnel watching us. I concentrate on that image of him now as I
feel the familiar blossom of my life force start at my core then pulsating through my limbs. I open my eyes and affix them on Tom. Everything around me starts to ripple and blur accept Tom. With everyone preoccupied with the fighting and arguing, I walk straight to Tom and take a hold of his arms, making him face me head on. He looks at me curiously, then down at my hands clutching his arms. Before he can gather any other reaction, our surroundings shiver and tremor so much that they are not recognizable and Tom starts to sway from side to side and closes his eyes. He is experiencing vertigo. Fearful that he might pass out, I grip his arms tighter, preparing to hold him up the best I can. The energy flowing through me is pounding against my chest, ready to be released. Not able to contain it any longer, I set it free with intentional conviction that it will encircle Tom and me and project us to Ira and the other Rephaim.

The transfer is mercurial. With my eyes still fastened on Tom, the small shift from darkness of the cavernous compound to the light of the outdoors is the only indication that I did it. I made the jump with Tom. I inspect our surroundings, turning in a half circle. We are standing on the edge of the woods a few yards from
Ira rooted in front of the sealed entrance of the tunnel.

Tom’s eyes are still shut tightly and his fingers are digging into my forearms.

I call to him, “Tom.”

Short of breath and still swaying slightly, Tom answers, “What?”

“Open your eyes.”

His eyes open just a hair.

I encourage him
, remembering the feeling of weightlessness with jumping. “It is alright. You are on solid ground now.”

He blinks
profusely, then opens his eyes wider. He examines our whereabouts in a matter of seconds then snarls at me, “How did you do that? Where are we? I mean, I know we are outside, but where?”

Before I can answer him, his eyes double in size and he steps away from me. I turn to see Ira and the other titans walking toward us.

Ira’s voice rumbles, “Get back in the compound.”

Tom grabs a
hold of my arm and tries to pull me toward the sealed tunnel. I hit the brakes, planting my feet wide and standing my ground. I take a hold of Tom’s arm and work against him. “Just meet them, please.”

I grip his arm so tightly, I feel my fingers dig into the flesh beneath his flannel
shirt. Ira and the four other Rephaim are in front of us arguing in their ancient dialect before Tom can pull any further away. He freezes in place, shocked by them.