Mother of Darkwaters: Book one of the Vessel series (73 page)

   “You go girl. I’m here for you.”

   Everyone turns their attention to the mid-range diving board. Julianna looks at Alexandria.

   “You better be,” Julianna says with a follow-up smile.

   Julianna puts her arms out in front of her. Alexandria pushes on her boyfriend’s left shoulder in anticipation. She knows good form when she sees it. She watches as Julianna lowers her arms, springs the board, and pops it.

    Julianna flies into the air. Her body forms a ninety-degree angle as it begins rotating in reverse. A moment later, Julianna’s body extends with her hands outstretched over her head. The water barely notices her intrusion as she head dives into its existence. When she surfaces, she hears clapping and cheering. She looks at Alexandria.

   “Okay,” Alexandria says with a big smile, “I’ll train you. Free if you let me swim here whenever I want.”

   Julianna happily agrees.

Chapter 15

   Interlude

   For the next few months, Julianna’s new friends make themselves known on a regular basis. Alexandria is the frequent in the equation with at least one visit every week. Julianna’s diving skills have improved tremendously with the blond nurse’s guidance. And with her friends making frequent visits, she has grown quite close to them with Alexandria and Gale at the top of the list.

   Julianna experimented with Eric a little bit, but the feelings are not there. For him they are, but not for her. And this is a real problem. He is too nice. He keeps reminding her of the boyfriend she could have, but will never have because of an argument and a car wreck. He reminds her of Johnathan.

   Instead of leading Eric on, however, she has elected to the maintenance of their friendship above the apparent disastrous romance looming overhead. Thankfully, Eric has taken this notion with both respect and stride. He has not forced the issue whatsoever. And because of this, they have become decent friends. In her opinion, a guy-friend like Eric is hard to find. Most guys can’t handle any sort of action that appeals to their ego as being some sort of demotion. But therein – inside of the cocoon spun to yield only destruction – is the problem. It isn’t a demotion, but a promotion – friendship over the loss of all communication due to the inevitable breakup. The absence of romantic chemistry is not some kind of evil which should be attacked; but rather, its absence is only a flag that points to the potential nature of a friendship.

   On the other side of the two co-existing realms, things are moving much smoother for Julianna. Lilith has taught her how to fight. Not in the physical sense, but within the realm of mental warfare. This teaching is not only great for that side of the two realms, but within the physical place where she truly lives her life, her mind now seems stronger than ever.

   Lilith has explained that any physical training would be pointless. Her spiritual body is tied to her physical body; since, she yet lives. This means her spiritual body will not have the muscle memory that is learned from those of the dead. That is, physical training is indeed a minute point for her.

   Spirit-souls and demons, on the other hand, they do fight physically. But they are irrelevant to Julianna’s presence. The demons have been ordered to keep their disgusting claws off of her by their king. Spirit-souls are pre-occupied by the tormenting nature of the demons in which they must live. They, also, tend to fight among each other quite a bit. With this being noted, she has a fallback if anything does go wrong – the ability to appear at the earth-line by Lilith’s wall. In fact, she has become so adept at it she no longer must close her eyes in order to do so.

   Within the area of her studies, Julianna has dived into her work completely. She has undertaken the painstaking process of going through the red books. Every single word is written within the language of Lilith. There are no interpretations for reference. But on the flip side, this has caused her to become a linguistic-juggernaut within the very complicated tongue.

   As for her castle-like mansion of a home, she had upgrades ordered to her house months ago. And after those upgrades were finished, Julianna had the distinct privilege of observing her friend’s awe-inspired faces as they each explored each room and floor together. Since Gale and Alexandria were not alone, however, Julianna made sure to instruct the staff accordingly. They were instructed to avoid any references to the term
‘Mother’
.

   Julianna, also, kept her guests from the creepy dungeon area. The extensive labyrinth underneath her home, she has not even walked and mapped yet. She has, however, seen the macabre torture chamber down there. Her skin crawls whenever she thinks about how her employees used to be punished for any insubordination. Guilty or not, there is no room for such cruel behavior in her home. As such, she put a stop to that sick and twisted practice immediately.

   The butler in whom she first met; actually, turned out to be a really good guy. He is not at all the evil tyrant she had first envisioned him to be. He was following tradition and teaching as much as the victims he had made. He knew no better. How could he? He didn’t know Julianna or what she would expect of those living within her home. He only knew that which had been taught to him – as they all did.

    The butler with blond hair has a boyish nature to him. Better than his nature, however, the butler has a wonderful quality about him – naiveté of the world outside of the Network. Everything he knows is about the Network. Because of this, Julianna can manipulate him as needed. And since the butler is fully trained to an expert level of the art of Jeet-Kune-Do, he qualifies for her security team. He has minimal understanding, however, of the handling of firearms – a must have skill for all security team members.    

   This is why she has sent him away to learn this very thing. She has made it quite clear to Frank that her butler will be the leader of her personal guard, as it were. And to her delight, Frank is doing everything he can to ensure that the rules and regulations are both followed and met per Network standard. After all, this is the only way that Julianna gets to pick and choose who will be on her team.

   Julianna could have allowed the current team to fall where the Network would have them, but she doesn’t operate like that. Instead, Julianna has promoted them to serve at her home. The current team leader will be in charge of her home’s security. His income will increase by seventy-five thousand per year with an annual raise of five-thousand dollars. This applies until the year he wishes to retire. All other current team members will undergo the same type of treatment; however, they will not be receiving the high standards that their team leader will be receiving.

   As for the Network community in general, Julianna has been making herself well-known. After her father’s assassination, it hasn’t been all that difficult to do so. As some of the guys in the Network have expressed, she has the fortitude to both keep herself safe and to follow through with anything that might seem too difficult for any other normal girl. In other words, Julianna has a name for making the hard decisions and executing those decisions as needed. As for being normal, Julianna is just Julianna. She can’t help that there are so many females her age that still need to suck on a bottle. That’s not her problem. Executing the hard decisions
is
normal for her. It’s not that difficult. Make a decision and see it through. No wishy-washy crap to trudge through.

   She has begun making first contacts with Network personnel outside of her state of Louisiana, outside of the continental U.S., and around the world. Not so much in an attempt to become involved with the politics of it all, but rather, to become familiarized with the inner-workings of those trained to be both asset and protector. According to her grandfather, she is doing the right thing in case she ever needs to set up shop outside of her comfort-zone – home.

   Just recently, she has learned of the Network’s AWOL list. It is a comprehensive list of detailed information involving the whereabouts of Network employees who have decided to leave their life and duty without formal permission. Runners, they are called.

   These runners are all assigned a watcher’s team. The teams are constructed of Network personnel who embed themselves into the runner’s life unawares. If the runner ever poses a threat to the bloodline or the Network, it’s a very bad ending for them. It might seem brutal from afar, but as Julianna has come to understand the nuances, it is more than necessary. The runners know how it works. They know or they wouldn’t run in the first place. It is simple. Keep the protection of the Network and of the bloodline above anything else, and live your life as you see fit. Of course, no runner is afforded the protection they once had within the Network one self-removed – physical
or
financial.

   The true reason this AWOL list caught Julianna’s attention was the fact that she has seen familiar names within its pages. These names are recognizable from both the texts within the Collection and those written into the Lilith wall. Not only that, but these names have
BL
written next to them in bright red – an obvious reference to the term
bloodline
.

   As a member of the bloodline, there is no one more trustworthy than those that live by the motto:
blood is thicker than water
. On the other side of this two-edged sword, however, the dangers are all too real from the perspective of the knowledge known by these family members. Runners of this caliber could cause a lot of damage if they ever decided to. Sadly, this is the reason why most of them have a red line through their name. Julianna understands the necessity, but finds the loss of family undesirable. It doesn’t matter that she actually knew them or not. They were all of her blood.

   A few of these bloodline runners have actually led full lives without any negative interference from the Network. They grow old, have children and grandchildren. The further apart the generations become, the safer they are. If there is no one to teach them of their lineage, then they live clueless. This is the only foolproof way – never teach the children of where they are from, who they are, or what their family’s purpose is of.

   Julianna can see the significance of what the runners are hoping to accomplish. In fact, she believes they have the right to choose how they should live their short lives. Her problem lies within the realm of the children. The descendants of those who have run have not been given the same opportunity to choose. She would not have any issue with a choice to stay clear of the bloodline and Network if it came from each individual member. Nor, would she consider uprooting lives from those too young to understand. Let the children be children.

   Her concern lies with the descendants who have never been given their opportunity to choose after reaching an age of understanding. They are shielded and protected from their own heritage as though having any knowledge would be cataclysmic to their very existence. Maybe it would or maybe it wouldn’t be. But at the end of the day, it
should
be their choice to make – not living in the bliss of ignorance set by their parents.

  
Choice.
It is the main reason Julianna has approached Lilith with the idea of pursuing her lost long relatives. The woman of many braids is not so keen on the idea. She believes Julianna to be the fulfillment of the main prophecy. All other current family members are a waste of time.

   Julianna understands the woman’s reluctance to pursue such matters. Lilith is tired and understandably so; although, she would not admit such things. This persona created by Lilith doesn’t have Julianna fooled. The younger woman knows that Lilith has been at this for a time beyond that which one could consider as being a long time. To state that Lilith has endured this madness for too long is a major understatement.

   Unlike Lilith, Julianna is just beginning her own journey. She hasn’t had the time to become tired of it all, as it were. Maybe she has the set of fresh eyes this family needs right now. But then again, she can hardly ignore the strongest of points that Lilith made to her concerning this matter:
Why? What is the point to it all?

   Lilith is right. There are no real reasons to do something like this. There is no purpose other than Julianna wasting her life away attempting to receive a
‘yes’
here and a
‘no’
there. And if she did receive the valuable
‘yes’
, then what is supposed to happen after that? Would she move them all in to her massive castle estate to live happily ever after like some twisted version of a smurf farm?

   Their loyalty would be unquestionable for they will have made their decision based on all of the facts. But would they act like family or servants? Julianna doesn’t need servants. There are already way too many of those for her liking. There are enough servants for two-hundred lifetimes. She would rather share her life with friends and family. Not order them around like employees.

   Out of all of these, however, the biggest question is:
Why would anyone want to give up the only life they know in order to become part of a family in whom they have never even heard of?
The sobering answer is that they wouldn’t. No one would; unless, they were mentally unstable on some level. Or at least, this is how Julianna perceives the obvious answer to be. Maybe she is reading too far into it. Maybe it is much simpler than this.

   Lilith’s reasoning on the matter might be different than Julianna’s own, but the woman with bronze skin cannot have her wisdom denied. As much as Julianna doesn’t want to let the topic go, she understands her mentor is one-hundred percent correct. There are just no good reasons to support the required efforts of interfering with these people’s lives, family or not. It is what it is. That’s the plain truth of it all.

   Julianna is pursuing the red books with the greatest of resolve in order to counter the void being built by this unknown factor involving the runners. She finds herself in them day and night. She has already decided to finish out her senior year with her grams as a teacher. This will allow her to get more time inside of the library. And as difficult as this particular set of books is proving to be, Julianna needs all the time she can possibly get.