Authors: Angella Graff
Mark hummed in agreement as he stretched out his mind, making sure that the energy surrounding the house was still protecting them from prying eyes. The shield, whatever it was, wouldn’t hold, but it would hold long enough for them to get some rest and come up with a plan. They were going to have to leave, but first they needed a starting point. Going back to San Francisco would be a death trap for Ben, and it would only start the cycle all over.
What Mark really needed to know was, what was Nike after? Why did she need to corrupt humans into a religious movement? What did she hope to accomplish. Mark’s words had never morphed into a belief in the old gods, quite the opposite in fact. New, careless, zealous movements were carried out in his twisted words, taking people far away from the old traditions and beliefs. So what could she want with him?
“Someone’s here,” Jude said, interrupting Mark’s train of thought.
“Who?”
“One of them,” Jude replied with a shrug and he headed for the bedroom door. “The good ones, like the boy in the kitchen.”
Mark felt self-conscious suddenly, their bodies and clothes in tatters. He wanted to be comfortable again, clean, fed, warm and healed. He didn’t really want to face a houseguest looking like this, but right now he had no choice.
His body cracked and popped as they descended down to the ground level, and as they padded across the tiled floor, through the sparsely furnished living room, Mark could hear voices. One was the boy from the kitchen, Andrew someone had called him, the other was a deeper male voice, cheerful and light, almost soothing.
They walked into the kitchen and by the fridge stood a very tall man, broad shouldered, salt and pepper hair that was trimmed neatly and styled with a dollop of scented gel. He wore a casual suit, a light blue shirt open at the collar, and a crisp charcoal coat to match the pants.
His skin was pleasantly tanned, like a man who saw the sun for recreation more than he saw the inside of an office, and his impossibly white teeth shone beyond his thin-lipped smile. He held out his hand as Mark walked forward, and Mark took it, exchanging a short, firm shake.
“It’s good to see you, and in one piece. I was thrown from that body in the room and wasn’t sure that you were going to get away okay,” he said, his voice so deep it rumbled through Mark’s chest.
“Ah, so you were in that woman,” Mark said. He pushed a chair out for himself, and one for Jude who hovered close behind.
“I was, yes. I do trust she got home safely?” he asked, popping the top of a sparkling water and taking a long drink.
“We took her back to her home. It’s likely she won’t remember a lot, though I’m not sure how your kind works with humans. You’re different than the Greek gods, yes?”
He gave a nod. “We are able to co-exist with a human consciousness for a period of time. They go into a dream state, and when I was excised her, the body had already gone unconscious from lack of oxygen. How injured is she?” There was genuine concern in his voice that touched Mark, and he found he instantly liked this man.
“Not injured at all. Ben was able to acquire Jude’s powers and heal both her and his sister. Abby, unfortunately, was left behind.”
“Yes, I saw that,” he said, a small frown spreading across his mouth. “Well there’s time to get her back, isn’t there.”
“We can hope,” Mark replied, not commenting on whether or not there was an Abby to save.
The man then looked over at Jude with a small smile and then gave him a respectful nod. “Good to see you up and about yourself. I’m Alex, by the way. I think I forgot to introduce myself.”
Mark looked behind Alex at Andrew who was watching them all with a look of intense concentration. He gave a sudden shiver and then let out a breath loudly. “We’re definitely safe for now,” he said, coming up to Alex’s side. “Nike’s looking for us, but she won’t be able to track us. Whatever power Ben used to heal Nike has taken an effect on her own. She’s got men with her, but they aren’t very strong. We’re in luck and it’s a good time to move.”
Mark frowned as he listened to this. He had no idea that Jude’s powers were able to do that, but it was something to go on. If they could weaken her, it was possible they could stop her.
“I know what you’re thinking, but it has little effect on her true nature. It only impedes her ability to manipulate matter in human form. It’ll wear off,” Alex said. “What we really need to do is find a way to banish her from this plane.”
“Would that even be possible?” Jude asked, speaking up for the first time.
“It would,” Alex said with a shrug. “Provided we can find an exit portal. Last time I checked, all of the ones on this continent had faded down to mirrors. Even the one in good old Greg’s office can’t hold much of a charge.”
Mark was slightly lost, but able to follow the conversation enough to get the basic idea. “Is there any way for you to sense or track down an… what did you call it, exit portal?”
“Yes, and honestly they’re difficult to sense.” He gave a shrug and finished off his bubbling water, tossing the bottle across the kitchen and landing it directly in the basket. He placed his hands on top of the counter and looked at Mark for a long time. “There’s something in you, in you both, related to one of our kind.”
Mark sat back and glanced at Jude quickly, frightened by that sudden announcement. What could he possibly mean? Something inside of them related to what? The Gods? The very idea made Mark feel ill. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“No, you wouldn’t would you?” Alex said with a sigh. “Whatever gave you your immortality and your unique abilities is far older than I could ever hope to be. For the very simple fact that it was able to bestow immortality and abilities on human beings alone, that tells me that it’s very old. Older than anything existing today in this realm. But why you? And what the hell for?”
Mark’s face was hot with fear and curiosity. It was the first time in two thousand years that anyone had any idea of what he could be, of why they were the way they were. He was desperate to know more, but it was obvious that Alex knew next to nothing about it.
“Nike is after power,” Alex said after a pregnant pause. He stepped back and gave a short shrug. “Your power, to be specific. From what I’ve been able to glean from my sources… and by sources I mean little Greek shits I was able to torture information out of… she’s looking to let something in.”
“What do you mean something in?” Jude asked. His voice was tight with worry, and he glanced over at Mark. “In where?”
“Into this realm of existence,” Alex explained. “I’m not sure what, or why, for that matter. Anything she
could
let in would likely devour and destroy everything, our kind included, so it wouldn’t really serve her purposes. The Greek I got my hands on earlier only knew a little about what she was after. Somehow she thinks your power would be able to make her strong enough to let something come through. Her biggest problem is the strongest portal in our realm would only let something out. There’s not enough power here anymore to open the portal wide enough. She’s obviously got something up her sleeve that involves the two of you. I just can’t imagine what.”
Mark let that sink in, trying to ignore the fear it caused. Truthfully, it was beyond his comprehension. It made sense, why she was relentless in her pursuit of them, but he still couldn’t work out what the humans had to do with it. Did she think she could manipulate the power into having the humans worship the entity she was trying to let in?
There were far too many unanswered questions for Mark’s liking. He rose and helped himself to some water and a small bowl of fruit. He offered it to Jude, who picked up an apple and bit into it ravenously. Their bodies were starved, tired, and Mark was ready for some respite. They’d been through a lot, and there was a dark storm on the horizon.
A few hours passed by, and the eclectic group of gods and immortal humans moved to the living room. Alex turned on the television, complaining every time an advertisement came on, explaining to Mark that his day job was making commercials for companies.
It was odd to Mark, to see a god like Alex so enamored with the human condition, but it gave Mark confidence that they had a true ally in him. Andrew sat by, quiet and still, in obvious discomfort, saying very little but it was clear he had no intention of leaving.
Stella joined them, but spent most of her time pacing behind the sofa, looking up at the ceiling ever so often, her desire to speak with Ben overwhelming the mood in the room. Still, she kept still and quiet until Mark felt the power shift, telling him that Ben was reaching the end of the pages.
Tension raced through his body and he didn’t turn Stella away when she insisted on following him up the stairs. They reached the landing, the hum of power strong, pulling and tugging at Mark. There was a shift happening, and Mark wanted to make sure he was there when Ben’s eyes moved over the last word.
Mark turned the handle and let himself into the room. Ben was there, bent over his crooked legs, eyes glued to the last page. His body was tense, the light in the room too dim for anyone to really read properly, but Ben was doing it.
He didn’t look up when Mark and Stella entered, but their presence caused a shift in the power flowing from those pages. Mark approached hesitantly, sitting on the edge of the bed, and with his hands folded, he waited patiently. He gestured for Stella to stay back, to keep as far away from the pages as possible, and she didn’t argue with him, hovering right near the door.
The energy in the room lurched and Ben’s body went stiff when he read the final sentence. He looked up, his head moving impossibly slow, and his eyes were half-lidded. They fixed on Mark, though they didn’t appear to see him, and the thing Mark was most afraid of, that subtle, almost reddish glow, appeared.
The pages on Ben’s lap shivered and shifted, a sort of haze around them like heat on the pavement seen from a distance. Mark reached for the gun he’d tucked away. Before he could draw the weapon, however, everything suddenly dropped. The power rushed out, Ben’s eyes flashed brightly and then faded to his natural color. He let out a breath and put his hands down on his lap.
“That wasn’t the end,” he said.
Mark frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You stopped writing before you got to the end. You didn’t tell what happened to Yeshua while you waited outside of the tomb.”
Mark stared for the longest time, unsure what to say. Ben had clearly absorbed the power, and although there had been a slight shift in him, he hadn’t changed. The words on the page, from what Mark could see, had remained the same. No other human had seen the words, unlike the only other time this had happened, the world remained safe from the shift. There would be no rioting, no murder or religious war. If Mark could destroy the papers before anyone else got their hands on them, they would avoid disaster.
“Ah, no that wasn’t the end. I’m afraid your daring rescue interrupted my flow of words,” Mark eventually said with a slight grin.
Ben moved slowly, shifting the pages neatly into a pile, and then he closed them back up into the briefcase, locking it with a loud click. He rested it against the wall, and glanced at Stella briefly before his eyes came to rest on Mark once more. “What happened? What happened when Yehuda went into the tomb?”
Mark chanced a small smile and he gave a shrug. “He lived. Yeshua lived. We were brought into the tomb once the guards had cleared. There was a man there, a tall, Roman man who had paid for the tomb, and he brought herbs with him to heal the wounds, but they turned out to be unnecessary.
“Yehuda healed him, though at the time we didn’t quite know what was happening. He was near death, barely breathing, his body in pain and the drug he’d been given on the sponge nearly killed him. But Yehuda touched him and after a moment, he rose.
“He was frightened, but he was free. He laughed and laughed as we stood there in awe, the wounds on his wrists and feet healing into small scars. He’d always be known for those scars, those gentle indents in the skin. When he was buried, the tomb carving had his footprints, and they carved the scars on there, forever a reminder of what he’d been through.