Relic (The Brethren Series) Read online

  “No thanks necessary. I’m glad to be able to help you. Raphael, would you kindly open the door so this lovely woman can rest her weary bones? And I’m not talking about me here,” Emma joked.

  “On my way!” he called out, and hurried to the door. “Door, open!” A small click and the door opened. Everyone filed in, babies in tow, and the young girl ran to parts unknown.

  “You seem flustered. All this tumult must be a bit much for you at the moment. Let me try to put you at ease. Michael and I have come here a few times with the children to get away from it all. Our daughter, Hannah, loves the playroom. That’s where she probably ran off to. I’ll introduce her to you later. It’s best that she’s occupied right now. The babies are sleeping, so I suggest we get down to the reason we’re here. Oh, this is Michael, Protector, father and husband extraordinaire,” Emma boasted as she snagged him on his way to the kitchen.

  “Hi! Nice to meet you.” Michael planted a passing kiss on his wife’s cheek. “I just want to put these bottles in the fridge, honey. I’ll be right back.”

  “And this is Gabriel,” Emma continued with a smile. “He’s another Protector. Gabriel, you can help Michael put the babies in the nursery.”

  “Hi,” Serena said as he passed by with the two carriers.

  “Hello! I’ll be right back.” Gabriel promptly went to another part of the house Serena hadn’t had the chance to venture to yet.

  “I think I’ll have a seat over by the fireplace. All this activity has made me a bit dizzy.” She laughed self-consciously, playing with a lock of her hair.

  Raphael quickly escorted her to the couch. He feels so good, so solid with his arms strong around my waist. The mere touch of his hand gave her the confidence she needed to maintain her composure, as though it was normal to have angels and immortals as friends.

  But how did one carry on a regular conversation? What did one say exactly? So, how long have you been immortal? Who’ve been your picks for the Super Bowl since…its inception? Lord, but she didn’t have a clue. Things were different with Raphael; they already had a connection, but the others…. She looked at him and squeezed his hand. He gave her a smile that numbed her fears and warmed her heart.

  “Relax, sweetheart. I know what you’re thinking. But we’re people, too, with normal lives, as you can see. Forget about what we are for now and concentrate on who we are. We’re people with family and friends and jobs, and we’re here to help you.”

  “Okay, okay.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. When she opened her eyes again, she found Emma sitting on the floor in front of her.

  “I can tell you’re uneasy. I think if I can heal you now, you can begin the journey back to yourself, to your stronger self that I sense buried deep inside you since being attacked.”

  “I’d like that very much. I’m not used to feeling scared all the time. And honestly, the pain in my ribs and stomach is wearing me down. I’m just plain tired.”

  “Lie down for me, please, and I will heal your physical pain and your emotional scars. But it will be up to you to bring back the strength of character that makes you who you are. Do you understand?”

  “I think so. You’re going to heal me physically and emotionally. But I’m the only one who can bring me back to life.”

  “Exactly! Raphael, you didn’t tell me how perceptive and intuitive Serena is,” Emma chided.

  “Well I…I didn’t really know myself,” he mumbled awkwardly.

  “I’d say you’d better work on that, my friend. Okay, let’s begin. Serena, I want you to close your eyes and relax. That’s all you have to do.”

  She did as she was told. Emma placed hands over Serena’s ribs and slowly moved them over each and every one, tracing their entire length. Breathing became easier instantly. Emma touched Serena’s belly and around to her lower back, sending her healing powers to those internal organs so badly bruised by all the kicks she’d endured. She shook her head and continued, gently waving her hands over Serena’s battered face and neck area. “I’m doing a healing of your mind, now. You should be feeling a slight tingling sensation all over your scalp.” Emma paused. “Hmm. Peculiar. I’m only able to do a surface healing at the moment. I’m detecting secondary brainwaves. Don’t want to go near those. Very peculiar indeed.”

  “What’s wrong with me?”

  “Nothing is necessarily wrong, Serena. It’s just that you have two very different signatures inside you, one being uniquely yours and the other, I don’t know, but it’s closely attached to…Raphael.” Emma would say no more as she continued her assessment and healing. She left her to ponder the implications on her own. Secondary brainwaves? Attached to Raphael? Monica will get to the bottom of this.

  By the time the healing had finished, Serena had a healthy glow to her skin and a radiant smile. The session had only taken about ten minutes. Compared to staying in the hospital for another two weeks, no doubt Raphael made the right decision bringing her here to be healed and protected.

  “Well, you’re well on your way to being healed at this point.”

  “Oh, Emma! Words can’t begin to describe how great I feel or how grateful I am to you. I don’t know how I can ever thank you enough. Wait, I know. I’m going to give you and your family lifetime passes to Sikes and Sounds of Sedona. Anytime you want a Jeep tour, come on in. It’s on the house, forever!” She shouted with glee, felt her ribs one by one with her fingers, touched her lower back, and laughed heartily. “Nothing hurts anymore. Ha ha! Look, Raphael, nothing hurts!”

  “Another job well done, Emma. Thank you,” he offered with sincerity. “And as for you, Serena, you look splendid. You may smell like lilies of the valley, but you look like roses fresh from the garden. I think we need to celebrate, don’t you?”

  “Absolutely! What did you have in mind?” she asked, beaming.

  “How about a grand lunch, and Emma, you and the family and Gabriel should stay, of course.”

  “Of course, that’s why we brought extra bottles for the babies!”

  “What’s this I hear about lunch?” Gabriel chimed in as he and Michael came back from the nursery. “I’m always up for food.”

  “Raphael invited us to stay for a celebratory lunch. Serena’s pretty much healed.”

  “Mama, I’m hungry.” Hannah skipped in from the playroom. “Can we have lunch now?”

  “Sure, sweetie. We were just talking about that.”

  From a distance, a baby’s cry could be heard. Another baby’s cry, this one higher pitched, joined the first. “Okay, it seems the troops have spoken. Lunch starts now, folks. Time to mobilize. Michael, get the bottles for Asher and Blessing. I’ll join you in a second. Gabriel and Raphael, raid the fridge and come up with something marvelous. Peanut butter and jelly will do for Hannah. Serena, you…hey, Serena, what’s wrong?”

  Raphael and the others swung around to see her sitting on the coffee table, tears glistening in her eyes.

  “It’s only that…it’s been so long since…since I had anything…resembling…a family meal.” She choked back sobs. “I’m so happy…and thankful…to be a part of yours today.”

  “You won’t be so thankful if I’m the one to make lunch! PB and J is my limit of proficiency, so I’ll handle the little one’s lunch. Raphael, looks like you’re the chef today, my brother!”

  Gabriel gave him a hearty slap on the back and with Hannah in tow, went to fix her a sandwich. Emma and Michael made a quiet exit to feed the babies.

  “Hey, I’ll be there in a minute, Gabe.” Raphael sat beside Serena, who had finally gotten herself under control and was wiping the last few teardrops from her cheeks. He took the tissue from her hand and finished the job. He placed a whisper of a kiss on her lips so soft and sweet, one last sob caught in her throat.

  “You know, you’re such a big brawny guy, but you have the most delicate touch and sensibility. It’s quite beguiling,” she pointed out.

  “I was shooting for devastating, but beguil
ing works.” He smiled that dimpled, captivating smile of his that spoke to her heart and sent butterflies some place a bit farther south. He stood, and while grabbing her hands, walked backward. “Come help me in the kitchen, Serena. Something tells me we could whip up something magical in there together.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Just as the dust devils whirled harmlessly over the desert, so too did the D’Angelo family and Gabriel gather themselves up and head out by late afternoon. Serena took to walking about outside. She saw Raphael coming toward her with purpose in his steps. He didn’t look pleased. Her heartbeat instantly quickened, and not from watching his lithe form approach her either. She spoke first to quell the uneasiness growing inside her, as though it would give her the courage to face whatever he had to throw at her.

  “I was beginning to wonder where you’d run off to, leaving me to fend off the coyotes and snakes all on my own,” Serena admonished.

  “Oh, knowing what you do for a living, I figured you’d have them coyotes and rattlers running scared the minute they saw you, darlin’,” he joked. More sincerely he continued, “Thought I’d give you some time and space after spending time with the craziness that is the D’Angelo family.”

  He laughed and tucked his hands in his pants pocket. “I’ll tell you though, there is nobody better suited to be a principal and a teacher than Michael and Emma. Their kids are damn lucky to have them as parents. And their kids, well, you don’t find finer these days. I needed some time, too, after hearing Emma’s assessment of your healing. Seems I’m to play a big role in the completion of your healing.”

  “Oh, really? Interesting.” She nodded. There’s more. I know he needs to tell me something, but he’s hedging.

  They stood together in silence for a while, watching a hummingbird hover over honeysuckle to drink its nectar. Raphael gently placed his hands on her shoulders. “Serena, we have to talk.”

  “Why do those four simple words always sound so ominous?” She twisted out of his grasp and walked toward a series of natural boulders, that when looking at them a certain way, reminded her of a tortoise. “Maybe it’s because nothing good ever follows them. ‘Serena, we have to talk, your mother is dying. Serena, we have to talk, your father has had a catastrophic stroke. Serena, we have to talk, we’ve tried everything and can’t find your brother.’ So, Raphael, you tell me we have to talk. Let’s talk.”

  She turned back to him, took a deep breath to steady her nerves, and projected an air of fortitude she truly did not feel. “Whatever it is you have to tell me, I’ve had years of practice ‘talking’ and facing adversity. So, I ask that you don’t mince words with me. Don’t sugar-coat it. Say what you have to say and I’ll deal with it the best I can.”

  “Come sit with me on the bench.” They walked together yet apart. Serena intentionally distanced herself from him and steeled herself for the message he brought. Her brain warred with her heart as possible worst-case topics of conversation flitted across her mind. She sat on the edge of the teak park bench and as far from Raphael as she could get.

  “Well, out with it,” she pressed.

  “It’s about your brother, Serena.” Her stomach clenched into a ball of knotted nerves. “The Brethren have been trying to find you, to tell you about him, and when I finally located you, you were, well, not in very good shape to hear anything. So I’ve been waiting, biding my time until you were strong and well. Serena, we’ve found him.” Raphael took her icy, trembling hands in his. “It’s not good news. I’m afraid he’s dead.”

  There they were. Words that she’d been afraid she’d eventually hear, but until now, held out hope that she wouldn’t hear until she grew quite old and gray. She closed her eyes and lowered her head while visions of Jared with his easygoing smile came flooding back to her.

  My baby brother is dead. Gone, forever. Impossible! How?

  “How? How did he die?” She opened her eyes and could swear the world had dimmed. Everything, all the vibrant colors, appeared muted.

  “We’re not sure exactly,” Raphael replied solemnly. “He’d been dead for some time when we found him. We believe he joined a cult called The Source at some point, and worked for one of its truly evil leaders. We found him in an abandoned mine in the Goldfield Mountains, south of here a few hours away. At the time, the only thing we could do was to give him a proper burial. I’m so sorry. Truly I am.”

  “You buried him? Why didn’t you call the police when you found him? When did you find him? How long has he been dead?” She jumped up and began pacing. “Wait, how do you know it’s him? What proof do you have?” Questions were coming to her faster than she could spit them out.

  Raphael took out Jared’s wallet and put it gently in the palm of her hand. She turned it over, inspecting it. Her hands visibly shook as she opened the wallet to find her brother’s face staring back at her with a confident grin. His driver’s license. Another picture peeked out from inside—the picture of Jared and her from their Grand Canyon trip. It looked as though it had been through a war, all tattered and torn, yet still remarkably vivid in color.

  “Oh God, oh God, oh God!” The wallet fell from her hands. She dropped like lead and would have kissed the ground had Raphael not been there to stop her. She hadn’t fainted or begun to cry. She sat on the ground, stupefied. Her vision blurred, and she shook her head back and forth as if saying no would make it so.

  “Serena. Serena! Look at me, honey.” He cupped her face so she could do nothing more than see his eyes. “Sweetheart, you’re alive. And you need to keep on living, for Jared. He wouldn’t want you to do any less. You hear me? Grieve, yes, but don’t let it consume you. If you have any hopes of helping to bring down the ones who ultimately did this to him, the very ones who are after you, you gotta get up and go on, and live in the here and now. Serena!”

  She saw his lips moving. Is Raphael saying something to me? Jared is gone, probably murdered. But for my non-communicative father, I am alone. Alone and deeply afraid. There were men after her, bad men, men who wanted her and a man who wanted her dead. But now there was also Raphael, a good man, staring anxiously at her, with those eyes of the most curious blue. And he spoke from those lips that had set fire to her own. Did he just say something about being alive? Alive. She didn’t feel alive. She felt numb, empty.

  “Alive,” she whispered. “I’m alive.”

  “Yes, that’s right,” he encouraged. “You’re alive.”

  “Jared’s dead, and I’m alive,” she droned. “Why am I still alive? I should be dead, too. I should be dead….” She cocked her head, perplexed.

  “Serena, you’re alive because that’s the way it should be. Come on. Let’s get you off the ground and inside. I’ll get you some tea and we’ll talk.” He lifted her off the tiny stones surrounding the bench.

  “Yes, tea sounds nice.”

  ***

  It took a full pot of chamomile tea and three pitiful healing attempts on Raphael’s part to get her back to sanity.

  “I’m a fake, a phony, a fraud,” she began, chiding herself. “There I go telling you to lay it on me, I can handle whatever you got to tell me, and then I go all nut-house crazy. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I don’t usually fall apart like this. What you must think of me, I can only imagine.” She fiddled with the tablecloth at the kitchen table.

  “You would be imagining wrong if you believe I think any less of you,” he shared softly. “And don’t think for one minute more that you have to put up a brave front with me. I know how strong you are, sweetheart. You have been through more than most, and rather than feeling cursed for living, you should feel as though you have been granted an incredible gift of resiliency. I, for one, am supremely thankful you are alive and sitting with me now.”

  He reached over, grabbed her hand, kissed the palm, and held it to his cheek. He gazed steadily in her eyes. She blushed and looked away, not used to the attention and adulation.

  “Hey, do you think you could answer a couple of
questions for me? Gabriel came today with some interesting information, but we need some from you to piece it all together and have it make sense.”

  “Yes, I’ll tell you everything I know, especially if it will help you catch the jerks that planned on ruining my life.” She quivered from his tender display of emotion.

  “If you feel uncomfortable at any time, let me know and we can stop. Understand?”

  “Okay.”

  “First question….” He opened a notebook. “You mentioned that the last time you saw your brother was two years ago, and at that time he’d given you the stolen relic. So, we’re wondering why it took Dr. Chappo so long to get to you, given the fact that you’re in a highly visible business. You’d think he’d be on to you as soon as he figured out your brother had stolen the relic.”

  “I decided to take a leave from my business to go search for him a week after Jared stopped showing up anywhere he normally would. Up until a couple of weeks ago, if anyone came snooping by Sikes and Sounds, they wouldn’t have found me. And they wouldn’t have found me at my house either. I had rented an RV and was on the road, every road, each night and day. But eventually my money ran out.” She poured herself the last drips of tea, and welcomed the self-imposed reprieve from painful memories. “Nearly two years is a long time to be a vagabond in search of a missing brother. In the end, I returned home empty-handed.” She paused. “I want to thank you for burying him. For giving someone you didn’t even know the dignity of a proper farewell.”

  “It’s the least we could do, Serena. No one deserves to die and be left unattended. Being who we are and what we do, the Brethren certainly couldn’t abide by that. So, you weren’t available until recently. Had you come across any information regarding Dr. Chappo?”

  “Not a thing. I couldn’t even find out where he lived. I guess I’m not very good at investigating.” She laughed mockingly at herself.