The REASON Series - the Complete Collection (54 page)

Zirah and Seraphina both turn toward a door. Through the windows on either side of it, Vivienne can see green grass and flowers. A garden.
 

Vivienne follows them out the door and into the vast garden. It is probably one of the most beautiful sights she’s ever seen. Stone paths lined with all different types of flowers crisscross the garden, and between the paths is lush green grass that is soft under Vivienne’s feet. Two benches surround a brick walkway around a fountain in the center of the garden, and four pathways lead away from the fountain to arches in the bushes and hedges that mark the borders of the garden. Beautiful white flowers peek out from the hedges. Vivienne can’t see what lies beyond that.

“In order to show you what you need to do, we first need to teach you what not to do,” Seraphina says as she plucks a white rosebud from a nearby bush. She brings the bud to Vivienne. “Hold out your hands.”
 

Vivienne does as she says.
 

“Now bring them together to make a bowl.”

Vivienne brings her hands together pinky to pinky and cups them, then Seraphina places the rose bud gently in her palms.
 

“Now, I want you to close your eyes and visualize the rose in your hands. Let it become a part of you.” Vivienne closes her eyes. The flower is light and soft against her palms.
 

From somewhere behind Seraphina there is a loud noise like two pieces of wood slamming together. Vivienne starts. A white-hot flash kisses her palms and she drops the rose.
 

Opening her eyes, she looks at Seraphina, then down. The rose is no longer a rose but a pile of black ash on the ground.
 

“What happened?”
 

Zirah says, “You lost your concentration, and instead of healing the rose, you burned it.”

“But—” Vivienne is confused. She didn’t even know what had happened until after it was already done.
 

“This was to show you what can happen when you lose focus. Your ability to heal also has a negative side. You cannot have the ability to heal without the ability to destroy. Balance,” Zirah says, and Vivienne understands immediately.
 

“So let’s try again,” Seraphina says. “Only this time, once you find the rose within yourself, imagine it opening.” She holds up another rosebud.
 

Vivienne braces herself by widening her stance so she feels both more relaxed and more stable. She brings her hands up and cups them, and Seraphina places the rose against her palms once again.
 

Vivienne closes her eyes, concentrating on the bud in her hands. She finds the rose – she can see it, touch it, smell it within herself. She watches as each of the rose’s petals slowly begin to fall open.
 

In front of her, another loud clap, but this time she is expecting it and she doesn’t flinch. She can feel Zirah and Seraphina surrounding her, watching her.
 

As the final petals unfold, exposing the center, Vivienne is awed by its simple beauty. She opens her eyes to see the rose, open and beautiful, no longer resting against her palms; it’s suspended above her hands.
 

She looks up to see her teachers’ reactions, and that’s when she sees her.
In the distance, across the garden on the other side of the fountain, Rebecca stands in an archway in the hedge. Vivienne’s concentration breaks. The rose flashes and turns to ash in her palm.
 

“What happened that time?”
 

Vivienne isn’t sure which of her teachers asks the question because she is staring too intently at her mother. “I thought she wasn’t allowed in Elysium without an invitation,” she whispers to the angels standing near her.
 

“Who?” Zirah responds and follows Vivienne’s gaze. “She’s not—” Zirah is cut short by the arrival of Elizabeth.

“She’s not. I brought her here to further discuss what happened. I’m sorry, Vivienne, she wasn’t supposed to be here in the garden.”
 

Vivienne peels her eyes away from Rebecca to look at Elizabeth. “Have you learned anything further?”

“No, not really, other than she seems pretty certain that Riley wasn’t alone. But we already knew that.”

Vivienne nods. Two cloaked figures appear behind Rebecca, commanding her attention, and she goes with them willingly.

TWENTY-SIX

For the next two weeks, Mikah and Vivienne train during the day, Vivienne in Elysium with Zirah and Seraphina and sometimes Celeste, and Mikah with Andrew, Connor and Red in the condo downstairs, which now looks more like a karate studio than an apartment. The tension builds as each day passes and they continue wait for Riley or one of the devil’s other minions to make a move.

Vivienne’s bump is no longer just a bump. Now, at twenty-one weeks, she’s grown quite the belly, and Mikah spends every moment he can talking to or playing music for the baby. Her kicks get stronger everyday.
 

In order to ensure that Vivienne and the baby will have everything they need in the event that something happens to Mikah, he talks to Red and Andrew about his wishes. This is not an easy conversation for any of them.

Every morning they take their walk along the river, each day a little longer than the day before. About three or four days into the routine, they add an evening walk.
 

Every night, and sometimes between training sessions, Mikah and Vivienne make love. Each time it’s a little more intense and emotional for both of them. Mikah knows he loves her and is confident that she loves him in return, but he senses her hesitation to say it out loud. He also knows it has nothing to do with him.
 

Then, finally, she tells him her story about her mother and about Riley. Her confiding in him is the turning point; he knows she’s learning to trust him.
 

One night, with an hour or so to spare before their evening walk, Mikah leaves Vivienne to eat and heads into his office. Only his office is not where he is going. Once he’s shut the door behind him, he transports himself to Elysium, something he’s been taught how to do over the last two weeks.
 

He walks through the great room and passes into the sanctuary, where he finds his mother standing at the altar.
 

“Hello, my son.”

“I need to see her.”

“Who?” His mother turns to him.
 

“Rebecca.”

“For what purpose?” Her tone is forbidding, but Mikah will not back down.
 

“I need to talk to her.” Mikah had decided a couple of days ago that he needs his own answers so that maybe he can figure out what he can do to help Vivienne.

“Is that really your place, my son?”

“No, I’m sure it’s not, but I need to anyway.”

“Are you going to marry Vivienne?”
 

“What? What does this have to do with my request?”

“Everything, my son. Do you plan to marry her?”

“She has to learn to trust and love me before I can propose marriage to her. I’m sure you can understand that.”

“I do. But when she finds that she already loves you and trusts you, will you marry her?”

“Yes.” Mikah watches a smile spread across his mother’s face.
 

“Good.” She gestures toward the door to her right. “Rebecca is outside.”
 

Mikah steps through the door and into the garden. Despite all the white inside of the sanctuary, the garden is green and full of color and life.
 

Rebecca sits on a bench opposite him, looking right at Mikah as he walks toward her. Her features as he approaches are devoid of emotion.
 

“Mind if I sit?” he asks her, not really intending to give her a choice.
 

“No,” she says, and she goes back to looking around the garden.
 

“Why?” It’s all he can ask.
 

“Why what?” Rebecca looks at him, trying to read him.
 

“Why did you do to Vivienne the things you did?”

Rebecca stands and starts to walk away. Mikah follows, catching her quickly by the arm and turning her around. “She deserves an explanation, Rebecca. You owe her that much.”

“It’s none of your business.” She tries to turn and he stops her again.
 

“You’re wrong about that,” he says, emotion raw in his throat. “You see, I care about her. Deeply. But your inability to show her love and affection has her terrified to admit to herself that it’s okay to fall in love. She deserves better than that.”

“You want to know why? Fine, Mikah, I will tell you why. I loved Red with all of my heart. When I found out I was pregnant with Vivienne, I couldn’t wait to tell him. I was dying to tell him. I knew that he would be happy and that we would all be happy together. But I never got that chance. He never came back.”
 

Mikah’s grip loosens on her arm. She pulls free but doesn’t run away.
 

“When I finally realized he was never coming back, I was too far along to do anything about it. Being a single mother was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I found it much easier to handle her and life with the bottle. I blamed her for Red leaving, I blamed her for my being a single mom, I blamed her for everything.”
 

Mikah’s knees weaken and he sits alongside the fountain in the center of the garden.
 

“I had to live with that choice every day of my existence. I had to live with it inside of my own head at the rehab center, and I had to live with it every time she looked into my eyes. I gave up on her, but she never once gave up on me. Now I have to live with my choices for eternity and beyond. There is nothing I can do to make things right with her.” Rebecca takes the bench opposite Mikah.
 

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
 

Rebecca looks up into his eyes.
 

“You said it yourself, she never gave up on you. Maybe that is still true today. Elysium is not about repenting for your sins, it is about forgiveness and life. Start a new chapter with her.”

“I can’t,” Rebecca says, standing again and turning to walk away.

This time Mikah lets her go.
 

“She is hopeless, Mikah. She will never change.”

Mikah stands and spins around. Vivienne is standing opposite the fountain from him. “Vivienne, I—”

“Shh. She’s right. I never did give up on her, but my reasons for hanging onto her were selfish. I wanted her to apologize to me, tell me that she didn’t mean it, tell me that it wasn’t my fault. I know now that it wasn’t my fault and maybe it is no one’s fault, but—” Vivienne walks around the fountain toward Mikah. “—but I know that the choices she made were hers and hers alone. I cannot change the past, and I am who I am today because of her. I don’t need her apologies to move on with my life.” She reaches her hand out for him to take. “Thank you.”

 
“For what?”

“For getting her to say it out loud. Everything she said, I’ve suspected but never had the courage or the opportunity to get her to say. But now, I know.”

“How did you know I was here?” he asks as they head toward the door that leads back to the condo.
 

She smiles at him. “I’m more attuned to you than to anyone else. I knew the minute you left the condo. I just gave you some lead time.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

“You’re one lucky son of bitch, you know that, Riley? You’re lucky he hasn’t sent you to be tortured.”
 

The man in front of Derek groans. Tied up, gagged and bloody.
 

“Well, any more so than you already have been.” His sinister laughter fills the room. “He obviously has something else planned for you.”

“Leave us!” A grave and growly voice.

Derek turns toward the voice. Standing behind him is none other than the devil himself, a menacing look in his bright red eyes. Derek leaves the room quickly.
 

The air in the room warms to feverish temperatures as the devil draws closer to Riley, who is bound to the wall. With a small gesture, the devil cauterizes Riley’s wounds one by one, and little by little the bleeding stops. But Riley’s grunting, screwed-up face indicates that the pain is excruciating.
 

“The task I gave you remains unfinished. We know how and where to find her.”

Hearing those words gives Riley newfound strength, and he begins to thrash against his bindings.
 

“Stop that. Why should I let you finish your task? You’ve done nothing but defy me from the moment you showed up here. Your latest stunt, killing your own father, gives me renewed confidence in your potential, but I don’t trust you. If you defy me once more, I will happily watch your balls be ripped off again and again, day in and day out.”
 

Riley squirms.
 

“Not your idea of a good time, is it?”

Riley shakes his head.
 

The devil continues closing up Riley wounds. As each wound closes, Riley feels as though a new one is forming.
 

“She is vulnerable. You will capture her and bring her back to me. If you kill her...” There is a sudden pulling and ripping sensation in Riley’s groin and he screams, the sound muffled by the gag in his mouth. “If you harm her in any way...” Again the pain returns and Riley screams, sweat pouring down his face and body. “If you fail in your task...” Riley screams again, this time louder.
 

The pain is so intense he thinks he is going to black out, but before he does the pain stops.

Riley briefly wonders why his orders have changed and the devil has to have Vivienne alive now, but the fact that his balls are still throbbing with each pump of blood that passes through them reminds him not to question it.

“You will find her walking along the river, near the bridge. Sometimes she is alone and sometimes she walks with another female. You can destroy the other female, but bring Vivienne back to me alive. I will deal with her once she is here. Do you understand me?”