Mother of Darkwaters: Book one of the Vessel series (97 page)

   Julianna sits in the back row of the family only service. Jennifer, Caroline, and Rebecca sit on the second row behind Tamara’s parents. The four friends are the only ones invited to attend this first showing of Tamara’s ashes. The rest of the high school will see them tomorrow.

   For the past three days, Julianna has been searching the Place of the Dead to no avail. Even Lilith and Julianna’s parents have been trying to help. But it has all been in vain. Tamara is a murder victim. And as Julianna has come to understand it, murder victims can appear anywhere because of the horrendous nature of their departure. They leave the physical realm in a chaotic fashion. And they enter the spiritual one in the same way.  

   She might appear as a sorrowful fading ghost or a wailing banshee seeking her revenge. She might not appear at all as she could have been rushed into the deeper depths of the Place of the Dead. Those of murder cry out in despair. Despair attracts those in whom attention is not wanted.

   To add insult to injury, Julianna found out that Tamara implicated David Snow by name before being carted into surgery. His filthy name was the last thing her precious lips ever spoke. The bastard only required a few stitches to his self-inflicted wound. Then, he escaped and no one has seen him since. He is hunted, but free. Free to live his chosen existence while Julianna stares at the urn which holds the love of her life within its cold container.

   Captain Brian Woods reaches up and touches his ear piece. He leans over and whispers in Julianna’s left ear. She nods. Taking one final look at Tamara’s photos, Julianna stands up and walks out of the church. Whenever she reaches the parking lot, she turns towards her Captain.

   “I don’t care about the costs,” Julianna coldly speaks, “You get that piece of crap into my dungeon. Bribe them. Threaten them. Do what needs to be done. But he is
not
watching television somewhere in a prison.”

   “Yes ma’am,” the Captain answers with sad eyes.

   Julianna turns towards the limousine and begins walking, “Get Jennifer and Caroline’s teams secured. And put someone on Rebecca as a temp until I can deal with that. But remember to explain how I feel about not being seen.”

   “Yes ma’am.”

   Julianna stops at the open rear door of the Network provided limo. She nods at the driver and slips into the car. Captain Woods waits until the driver closes the door. Julianna rolls down her window. The captain steps up closer as the driver leaves for the front of the vehicle.

   “Tell Jennifer, Caroline, and Rebecca where I live. Give them the code to the gate. Explain that it is their home as much as it is mine. I understand they still have school. But if they need to leave or just want to visit, they always have a new home. Grams is certified to teach. So that’s not an issue if they can’t handle being in the same school anymore.”

   “Yes ma’am.”

   “Tell them…”, Julianna fights her trembling lips, “Tell them I just can’t walk back into that school.” Fresh tears fall from her eyes as she rolls up the window.

   “Yes ma’am,” Captain Woods whispers to himself while listening to the sounds of fresh sobs. He taps the top of the vehicle. The limousine driver places the car into drive and pulls off.

   Captain Brian Woods watches the vehicle drive away and leave the parking lot. He will do whatever he can to find that boy. The nationwide manhunt is not going to make it easy. But Captain Woods is not a man who accepts failure when success can still be achieved. He will get David Snow into her dungeon, or he will die trying.

   “Hi,” Julianna sadly greets Martha and Frank at the airport. Frank walks over and takes her bags. He gently kisses his granddaughter on the forehead. Martha embraces her in a tight hug. Julianna’s arms remain at her side as she numbly accepts her gram’s greeting.

   “Let’s get you home, baby,” Martha says quietly.

   Frank pushes in the gate’s code. Two large iron gates swing inward. He drives down the driveway and stops at the top of the circle drive near the porch. The porch’s u-shape is an exact opposite match to the adjacent curve of the circle drive. Martha has explained that its meaning represents the balance between life and death.

   “I’ll get the bags,” Frank informs quietly.

   Julianna opens her door and steps outside. She barely notices her staff waiting by the front entrance of her castle-like mansion. She feels an arm wrap around her shoulders.

   “Let’s get you inside,” Martha coaches.

   Julianna begins stepping as her grams gently nudges her along.

   “I love you,” Julianna says the words with an empty void left in their wake.

   “I love you, Julia,” Martha answers somberly, “You’re home now. Let your grams do her job. You just worry about a nice hot bath. I’ll inform the cooks to make something light to eat.”

   Julianna doesn’t answer. She walks up the stairs of her stone porch – ready to give her grams complete control. After all, this is why she came back. She knows Martha will help to put her broken pieces back together as best as they can be. And right now, Julianna needs all the help she can get. Her life has lost its purpose. Her future, destroyed.

  
Knock. Knock.

   Julianna looks towards the white door of her master bathroom.

  
Knock. Knock.

  “Julia, are you decent?”

   Julianna turns her head and stares at the bubbles blankly.

   “Bubbles,” she forces the word.

   Martha opens the door and steps inside. She closes it back while looking at her zombie granddaughter. The young woman is dipped below her lilac-scented bubble bath up to her neck. Martha walks the sixteen-foot distance to the iron bench positioned along the right side of the wall. She turns and sits with her blue eyes fixed upon her granddaughter.

   “How are you doing?”

   “Horrible,” Julianna answers while staring at the bubbles, “My body feels like it’s trying to die, but won’t.”

   “What was she like?”

   “Grams,” Julianna shakes her head, “I can’t.”

   Martha watches her granddaughter’s eyes fill with watery tears.

   “She must have been something really special. Your eyes are hurt much deeper than when you first came to my home,” Martha makes a reference to Johnathan’s death.

   Julianna begins crying. Her right hand, she brings out of the water to cup over her face. Her shoulders shake in rhythm with each sobbing release heard from her mouth.

   “I don’t  - I don’t understand,” Julianna forces the words from her mouth.

   Martha’s eyes water as she covers her partially open mouth.

   “I - I thought the broken bleeding branches were for me.”

   Martha’s heart feels like breaking when Julianna lowers her hand and looks at her with begging eyes.

   “Grams,” Julianna continues between sniffles, “She…it was her. It was
her
.”

   Martha’s water frees itself from her eyes as Julianna uses both of her hands to bury her own face. The young woman breaks down within her grief once more – releasing another series of endless tears.

   Martha remains quite as her granddaughter spends the next ten minutes fighting to regain control. Julianna lowers her hands and looks at her grams with a pout.

   “She was great,” Julianna says with her eyes tearing up again. She pauses as her lips tremble against her will.

   “Ta…”, Julianna can’t say her name yet, “She completed me.”

   Martha watches the young woman use her hands to cover her face again.

   “I’m so lost.”

   “What did she look like?”

   Julianna’s cries intensify. It takes her another five minutes to regain control.

   “Damn this sucks,” Julianna sighs. She leans back and closes her eyes. Martha remains unspoken. A few minutes later, Julianna laughs awkwardly.

   “She was beautiful. Tall. Short blond hair. Gorgeous brown eyes. Dark tan. Her legs and hands were so beautiful. And she was strong.”

   “Heh-heh, damn she was strong.”

   Martha watches as her granddaughter’s only glimpse of a smile suddenly hardens. Julianna opens her eyes and stares at her grams within her rage.

   “That coward took her from me. He blindsided her. She would have kicked his ass. I know it.”

   Martha’s subconscious causes her to wipe at the goosebumps on her arms. She has never seen Julianna with such hatred before. Not on this level.

   Julianna closes her eyes while facing her head forward.

   “Grams?”

   “Yes?”

   “I don’t want to upset you,” Julianna calmly explains, “But if I get my hands on him, I’m going to do a lot of terrible things.”

   Martha remains silent while looking at Julianna. Her eyes are still closed, but after her recent statement, the young woman’s face has seemed to relax. The woman with red hair understands that this is the point in which she should attempt to talk her granddaughter out of such thoughts. She leans against the wall, closes her own eyes, and sighs.

   “If it was my Frank,” Martha concedes to the truth within her, “I’d make that boy suffer, nurse him back to health, and do it all over again. If I killed him, it would be out of shear boredom.”

   Julianna laughs, “She got so mad when her sticks kept breaking.”

   Martha opens her eyes. She looks at her granddaughter curiously.

   “I kept making fun of her knowledge about timber and she would get
sooo
mad. Damn she was beautiful.”

   Martha’s right brow lifts slightly as her granddaughter continues talking with her eyes closed.

   “Ha-ha. She would run out, grab another stick, run back in, use it – it would break and she’d get so angry. Heh...she’d run back out again. So beautiful. And when she found the one that wouldn’t break, the glow in her eyes sent electricity through my whole body. I started falling in love with her right then and there.”

   Julianna opens her eyes. She looks at her grams who remains speechless.

   “What?”, Julianna question is followed up by a sniffle.

   “Nothing. Well, actually,
what
?”

   Julianna looks away.

   “Don’t act like you don’t know.”

   “You heard us?”, Martha questions.

   “Heard what?”

   “Um - your grandfather – you two are a lot alike.”

   “Huh?”, Julianna looks at Martha, “Oh – ewwww. Why’d you tell me that?”

   Martha chuckles, “I thought that’s what you were saying. Sorry dear.”

   “No grams – the sub-prophecy. Broken bleeding branches, remember?”

   “
That’s
what it means?”

   Julianna nods within her numbness.

   Martha looks at her granddaughter with confused eyes, “But if it
is
the way you believe it to be, then I am lost. Because
that
stone isn’t destroyed.”

   “That’s what makes this so hard. I had it all wrong. And she…”

   Julianna’s voice cracks as she begins sobbing again, “…She died because of me.”

   Martha pauses as fresh tears find their way down her cheeks. She leans back and closes her eyes.

   The woman with red hair speaks, “She was stolen from you by that boy. You didn’t have anything to do with that. The blame belongs with him and him alone. You loved her. I know you did. Don’t allow your mind to lie to you.”

Chapter 22

   When it Snows  

   Six months passes with no contact from anyone from California. No Caroline. No Jennifer. No Rebecca. Julianna has had the loneliest winter of her entire life…no Tamara.

   She has spent a lot of time reading through the red books and a little bit of time getting to know the three guys she accidentally adopted from the hospital. Julianna made them say the vows and laughed when they all hit the floor during one of her lessons. But her enjoyment was short-lived, as the sight brought back immediate memories of a time not so long ago.

   She is trying to move on with her life, but is unsure of where it should be moved to. Whenever Tamara was murdered, her plans died alongside the love of her life. Her reason for living was torn away.

   “Ma’am?”

   “Dammit,” Julianna startles. She turns and looks from one of the twelve gazebos in her backyard – a rather common occurrence as of late. The only changes are the gazebos in which she chooses to sit.

   “What have I told you about that?”

   “Sorry ma’am,” Captain Woods replies.

   “What’s up?”

   “We have him, ma’am,” the man with blond hair follows up with a grin.

   “Who?”

   “Him.”

   “Snow?!”, Julianna stands up.

   “He’ll be here in five,” Captain Woods informs.

   Julianna wraps her short arms around the thick man, “You rock, Brian.”

   “Ma’am,” the man accepts her thanks by looking forward as if at attention.

   Julianna steps back, “Minutes?”

   The man nods with enjoyment of the moment held in his eyes.

   “How – how did you..?”

   “Infiltration ma’am. It took us six months to get close enough to use our influence with those in charge. He had been arrested – Central Intelligence.”

   “Arrested? How come I didn’t know about it? There wasn’t anything on the internet or the news. And if you knew, you should have told me, Brian.”

   “Central Intelligence does not make their actions public. I wanted him in hand, ma’am,” Captain Woods explains, “I did not wish to cause you more pain for my failures.”

   “You really make it hard for me to stay mad at you for anything. We need to work on that.”

   Captain Woods grins, “Yes ma’am.”

   “So is he
ours
?”

   “Hung himself in his cell this morning, ma’am. He is legally dead.”

   “Wow you guys are good.”

   “Thank you, ma’am.”

   “What does he know?”

   “Nothing ma’am. I thought it best to let you figure that part out. We do have a DVD with news footage, newspaper and internet reports, coroner declarations, and footage of his parents when they identified his body.”