Atonement (Heaven Sent Book 1) Page 16

  “You look as beautiful as the day I married you,” he told her.

  She shut her eyes and squeezed them tight, when she opened them, she half expected him to be gone, the remnants of a dream she had yet to wake from.

  “What’s happening?” she asked.

  “The demon that fought his way out of Hell to come for you, Jared and I think he stole a powerful demon’s essence to escape. He’s coming for you, and anyone else who gets in his way. You’re in danger Gen, not just from him, but from the allies of the demon he stole the powers from to get back to earth.”

  “What? That’s what you want to tell me right now? I already know Schlosser is after me. He tried to kill Michael and then someone took him and Harry.” She paused “Oh my God Gabe, so much has happened.”

  Gen felt her body start to shake, her heart felt like it was breaking right there in front of him. “Why did you wait so long?” she asked.

  He sighed before answering. “I had no choice, you have to believe me. You know I would never leave—”

  “Except you did!” she yelled. “You walked out the door that morning and I haven’t seen you in forty years. Do you understand? I’ve been looking for you for forty years, Gabriel!”

  “I didn’t know it had been that long until Jared and I got back here. None of us understood the price,” he paused. “To me, it’s only been four months, Genevieve.”

  “What are you talking about? Price for what? What’s only been four months? Is Michael being kidnapped the price for my selfishness, Gabe?”

  “Listen, I have Michael and Harry. Jared and I took them from that church garden before the Hell Fighter venom could completely consume them.”

  She couldn’t comprehend what he was telling her. “Where are they? You bring them back here right now Gabriel, this is not a game!” Her words were stern, but she could feel tears streaking her face one again.

  “You don’t understand, they were near death, Gen.”

  “No, no, no.” Gen shook her head back and forth. She stumbled backing away from him. He reached out to steady her, but she slapped his arm away. “You know Kelly, Deb, and I can heal. You bring them back, we will heal them! You hear me, bring them back!”

  “I know you can heal, but this was much more severe than what your powers were meant for, they were near death. I can’t bring them back yet, they aren’t strong enough. It’s taking a lot longer than we hoped. Gen, the rest of you need to carry on this fight without them.”

  “No, we can’t, we can’t do that, not without Michael. We need Michael,” she told him.

  “I promise we are doing everything we can, but you have to act, you can’t wait.”

  “So now I can’t wait, like I waited for you, for forty years.” Gen watched the words sting him.

  “It hasn’t exactly been easy for me either, but at least I didn’t give up on my connection to you.” He held up his left hand, the shiny silver wedding band assaulted her like a slap in the face.

  “You don’t get to do that; you don’t get to walk in here after all this time and make me feel guilty. I wear it, it’s here, it’s just around my neck.” She looked down as the ground shook beneath her feet. She went to pull the necklace out and realized she was standing in front of him in pajamas. She was wearing red pants and a white tank top with pink and red hearts all over it, a gift from Kelly last Valentine’s Day.

  “Your powers have grown substantially since last I saw you, Gen.” He paused. “If you can’t control your emotions, I won’t be able to keep us here.”

  Her body recoiled at the sharpness in his tone. “Well, I’m sorry my heartache is an inconvenience for you! Since you don’t really have anything of value to tell me, you might as well send me back right now!”

  “That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” he snapped. “Why are you punishing me? Do you think I haven’t been punished enough?” His voice dropped, and anger seeped through his tone.

  Gen knew she had hurt him. Make this right Gen, stop fighting, is this really what you want right now? Her heart was begging her to back off, but the pain egged her on.

  “What do you want, Gabriel?” she asked coldly.

  “How can you ask me that?” he answered.

  She watched his furrowed brows crease together, then he shook his head back and forth and looked down at the ground. When he looked back up at her she could feel him, just as if she were wearing her wedding ring around her finger. She felt the swell of love he held for her, the heartache over their separation, and an agonizing physical pain from an onslaught of demon encounters.

  “Gabe, what happened to you? How are you able to share this with me?” He didn’t answer. “Answer me? What’s happened?”

  “We’re out of time, I need to send you back,” he told her.

  “Why? No one is here, why are you giving up on us?” she yelled.

  “I’ve never given up on us.”

  “No, Gabe, I have the ring, look it’s here!” She held the chain out away from her pajama top as if it proved her point.

  “I know you keep it close but won’t put it on …” he paused. “It’s not the same, is it?”

  “I can’t believe this, I have been to the end of the earth and back looking for you and this is what you say to me after all this time.” She stepped further away from him feeling the anger bursting to take over. “You want to hurt me Gabriel, well congratulations, you did, you leaving that day nearly killed me!”

  “Damn it, Genevieve, I didn’t leave!” he yelled.

  The wind picked up and Gen felt the first drops of rain fall from the sky, looking up she saw storm clouds fast approaching.

  He stepped quickly toward her. “You need to see this.” He put his hand against her forehead, and she saw flashes of light encircle them. “I need to send you back, all I can do now is share what I know. Schlosser is coming, but something else is already on to you. You need to be prepared to fight back, Gen.”

  Gen felt dizzy with the sensation of falling and then felt Gabriel’s arms around her as he carried her toward the bridge. Her mind was foggy as if she were falling into unconsciousness. She tried to fight it off.

  “No, Gabe please stay, we can work this out, please don’t leave,” she pleaded.

  “I love you, Genevieve.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

  “Stop! Don’t go, don’t go!” She yelled the words and threw her arms up to grab hold of him, but he was gone. The image of him was fading into the recesses of her mind. It was like a distant memory being swallowed by the ocean of time between them.

  Gen was thrashing in her bed, the sheets tangled and caught between the movement of her feet as she attempted to get free. Her bedroom door flew open and slammed against the wall. A cascading light washed over the room, Gen’s eyes adjusted to the brightness and she saw Deb and Kelly peering all around her bedroom.

  “Crap, you scared the Hell out of me!” Kelly said breathlessly. “I thought you were being attacked.”

  “Thankfully, it was just a nightmare,” Deb added. “Although it looks like it was a rough one, given how flush and sweaty you are, Gen.”

  “It wasn’t a dream, it was Gabriel,” Gen told them.

  Watching her sisters stunned silence Gen tossed the covers off as she swung her legs off the bed. Standing, she looked between them. “It wasn’t a dream, it was him, it was Gabriel. He’s alive and he has Michael.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Gen caught the look exchanged between her two sisters before Kelly spoke to her. “I don’t mean to sound like a negative Nelly here, I mean nothing would make me happier than to believe that Gabriel is—”

  “I think,” Deb interrupted, “Kelly’s asking if you’re sure it wasn’t a dream?”

  Gen held her hands up as if trying to calm the rising tide against her. “I know how crazy it sounds, but it wasn’t a dream. I was in that park with him, just as sure as I’m standing in my bedroom right now with the two of you.”

  The stillne
ss in the room made Gen tense, she broke it by walking between her sisters. When she reached the doorway, she turned back to them. “I need a few minutes to gather my thoughts, we need to work through this. Let me just go splash water on my face and pull myself together. It’s obviously going to be another all-nighter.”

  “What do you mean?” Deb asked. “Is it going to take you all day to explain what just happened?”

  Gen looked over at the wall clock, it read 8:45. “Wow, I slept solid for almost two hours!”

  Watching Kelly’s eyebrows rise and fall, Gen braced herself for what was coming next. “You’ve been asleep since Deb and I got back from chasing down Marcus, who we found by the way.”

  Deb then added “It’s 8:45 am. Assuming you fell asleep shortly after we left, you’ve been asleep for nearly fourteen hours.”

  “What?” Gen’s mind reeled. “Are you serious?” Kelly nodded to confirm the truth. “How is that possible? I couldn’t have been with Gabriel for more than fifteen, twenty minutes.”

  “Oh no,” Deb whispered. “Gen’s lost time too.”

  “What do you mean?” Gen asked, “When did you lose time?”

  “We have a lot to go over, I need coffee.” Kelly announced, “Can we go grab breakfast?”

  “Kelly!” Deb exclaimed.

  “What, it’s not like it’s inappropriate to want breakfast in the morning,” Kelly answered.

  “Breakfast is fine, let’s get dressed and head downstairs before our brothers show up,” Gen said.

  “Well, that may be difficult,” Kelly told her.

  “What, no way! Why would you call them?!” Gen squealed.

  “I didn’t, Xavier was already here. He sent Tom home last night and stayed in the house with you. When we got home, he was asleep on the sofa.”

  “We didn’t have the heart to wake him,” Deb said.

  Gen sighed, she knew she was being overly sensitive, but she couldn’t help it, she was more than rattled.

  “I’m sorry Gen, but you just yelled out that Gabriel’s alive and has Michael and Harry. If you really believe it wasn’t a dream, shouldn’t we be calling everyone back here anyway?” Kelly asked.

  “Let’s just pull ourselves together and start over downstairs. Xavier just used his powers to get coffee and muffins, he’s in the kitchen now. Let’s talk it out together and go from there,” Deb suggested.

  Gen made her way to the bathroom. This is just great, I haven’t even processed what happened and now I’m going to be thrust into an inquisition.

  Walking toward the kitchen Gen could smell cinnamon. She entered the sun splashed room and spotted Xavier at the table with his feet up reading a newspaper. The plate in front of him held half a cinnamon apple muffin from the bakery down the street.

  “Morning,” he said to her without putting down the paper. “Anything in that dream of yours you feel like sharing?”

  “Morning, Xav,” Gen replied. “Not sure I’m in the mood to share.”

  Kelly breezed into the room next. Xavier moved his right hand pushing the remaining paper off a large box with bright blue lettering on it. He flipped the box lid up and spun it toward Kelly so she could see its contents.

  “Breakfast muffins! All is right with the world,” Kelly proclaimed as she reached over to take one from the box. “Thank you for getting extra,” she whispered conspiratorially as she sat across from him to enjoy the unexpected breakfast treat.

  Xavier smiled as he folded the newspaper in half and put his feet back on the floor. Deb came in just as the tea kettle whistled, and she instinctively walked to the gas stove to retrieve it. Gen and Kelly loaded up plates while Deb made tea, then the three of them sat down at the table with Xavier.

  “Tom told me Gen was conked out last night,” Xavier told them. “I sent him home to try and get some sleep. He’s taking the responsibility of older brother in Michael’s absence seriously. Now that you’ve had something to eat, do our bothers need to come by to hear about the nightmare you just woke up from?”

  “It wasn’t a nightmare!” Gen emphatically told him.

  “They can come if they bring more food.” Kelly’s remark slightly quelled Gen’s annoyance.

  “I think they know better than to arrive here in the morning without food,” Xavier chuckled. “At least I know better.”

  Gen stared between the three of them and knew they still didn’t believe her. “Fine, they should come,” she sighed. “I don’t believe it was a dream, I believe it was real.”

  It took several minutes, but her remaining siblings arrived. Despite the amount of time that had elapsed since Gen spoke with them last, most of them looked exhausted and worn down.

  No one is sleeping, Gen thought.

  Tom sat down next to Xavier. Gen recognized the T-shirt Tom was wearing as the same one he had on the day before, but with a beat-up baseball cap to hide his unkempt hair. Greg hadn’t shaved in a few days and his five o’clock shadow had thickened to a low-cut beard. Dan and Frankie brought separate bags from different bakeries gaining Kelly’s approval.

  As everyone settled into the familiar stance around the kitchen table Gen began.

  “Gabriel pulled me into another realm last night.” Knowing she was about to be assaulted with a million questions, she held up her hands halting any follow up. “I already know you’re going to ask me, but no, it wasn’t a dream. I know it was real and I know it was him.”

  Taking a deep breath Gen launched into the details of the park’s unique and beautiful setting. At some point, Kelly had gotten up from the table and retrieved a notebook that she was now writing and drawing in as Gen relived her encounter with Gabriel.

  When it was over Tom was the first to ask, “How do you know it wasn’t a dream?”

  “I have dreamt of Gabriel more times in these last forty years than I care to count. Nothing has ever come close to the vividness of last night. Everything from the clarity of his face, his smell, his touch. It was him, no doubt.”

  Dan asked Gen his questions from the white board he was now standing in front of. “You mentioned feeling like something didn’t want you there, what do you think that was? Was there something else there with the two of you?”

  “I don’t know, if something else was there, I never saw it,” Gen answered.

  Tom asked the obvious, “Where has he been for forty years, Gen?”

  Gen’s breath caught in her throat, her eyes welled up. Hearing it said aloud made the amount of time he’d been gone real, but the truth was, she still didn’t know the answer.

  She shook her head back and forth. “I don’t know the answer. I think he told me, but I don’t remember.”

  “So, he got there and you two just talked?” Kelly’s tone implied disbelief.

  Gen leered back, peeved Kelly would attempt to insinuate a romantic encounter in front of their brothers. “Look, I’ve told you what I can remember, but there are still fuzzy images that I cannot see clearly.”

  “I think I can speak for all of us and say we all believe you Gen, but I don’t think we can be relieved,” Tom told her.

  “It would be comforting to think Michael and Harry are in Gabriel and Jared’s care,” Deb added.

  “It would be, Deb,” Greg agreed, “but if we stopped looking for them based on that and then later found out it was some sort of trick …”

  “That would be disastrous,” Xavier finished.

  “Was there anything else besides this park between day and night?” Tom asked. “Kelly seems obsessed with drawing this place, anything else you can tell us?”

  Gen thought about the end of the reunion with Gabriel. “Gabriel said we couldn’t stay there, but that he needed to share something with me.” She paused trying to recall exactly what it was. “I can’t remember. I think he tried to give me information telepathically, but it’s all jumbled now and fading as we sit here and talk about it.”

  Gen’s thoughts were interrupted by Kelly swinging a pencil back and forth across her f
ingers as she stared down at the drawing she made. Gen found it to be a remarkable rendering from a second-hand account. The pencil swung faster, the rhythm of the drumbeat on the table echoed around the room like the ticking of a bomb. Everyone looked in Kelly’s direction just as she slammed the pencil down and stood up to exclaim. “I know what this is! Oh my, I think I know exactly what this place is!”

  Kelly looked at Gen. “I’ll be right back, I need to go get a book out of the Vatican library.” Kelly’s orange-streaked aura filled the room as her sister teleported from the house still wearing a bathrobe and giant pink slippers.

  “Wait!” Tom yelled after her. “You have to stop stealing books from the Vatican!”

  It was useless. Kelly was gone, probably already walking on the marble tiled floor of the library in Vatican City.

  “Tom, it’s pointless to stress about the books, you know she’s going to continue to go,” Gen told him.

  “I just worry about her being discovered,” Tom said. “One day the librarians at the Vatican are going to see books flying off shelves without a person in sight, it will be like some wild clip from Harry Potter.”

  For several minutes they waited quietly for Kelly to return. Contemplating during the silence, an idea came to Gen. “What if Greg pulls the memories of last night forward for me?”

  Gen watched her brother’s faces fill with concern one by one.

  “That’s risky, Gen,” Greg told her. “You know what can go wrong. Memories are not something to trifle with, they don’t like being manipulated.”

  “I know the risks, but I think we need to do this,” Gen told him. “Gabriel was trying to tell me something, we need to know what it is.”

  A debate about the pros and cons of Gen’s idea was interrupted when Kelly finally returned to the kitchen. She held a package in one hand and a steaming cup of cappuccino in the other.

  “Ok, I’ve got it,” Kelly told them.

  “Did you actually go into a café in Italy with a bathrobe and slippers on?” Deb asked.

  Kelly held the cup out toward Gen. “I plead the fifth. Now, hold this for me so I don’t spill it on the book.” Gen took the cup and moved it out of the way. Carefully, Kelly placed a large bound package in the center of the table, then walked to the kitchen sink to wash her hands. Once dry, Gen moved left to allow Kelly space to get back to the book. Unwrapping the linen cover gingerly, Kelly turned to a specific page in the book.