Veiled (37 page)

“
Tess, I’ve never seen
anything like this before! You are going to love it!”

We arrived at what looked
like a small garden walled up by a tall thick hedge stocked with
bright pink berries. Some of the children helped themselves as they
passed, and some of them did not—to them it was just another day at
the most beautiful daycare of all. They disappeared inside and
Katie grabbed my hand as we entered.

This little refuge was
filled with the biggest and most colorful flowers I had ever seen.
Here the colors were mixed in the most inconceivable ways, reds and
pinks and yellow petals adorned some flowers. Others were violet
and orange, but the most spectacular thing about this place was not
growing—but fluttering. Hundreds of butterflies, some as big as
birds, were flitting teasingly all around us. When not in flight
they would pose on a flower and drink of the nectar, and they held
so still that after a while I realized that I had mistaken a few of
them for flowers. The children loved this place. Some of them ran
after the butterflies while others studied and smelled the flowers.
Other children lay on their backs and watched the butterflies dance
above them. I thought this a good idea and Katie did too, so we lay
down and took in the beauty of the place.

“
It’s reassuring, isn’t
it?” Katie asked after a while. “To know that if we die in
childhood we will come here—or if one of our children
dies…”

“
We won’t remember,” I
said, trying not to sound pessimistic, but stating the
obvious.

“
I know we won’t, but
maybe we will know it deep inside.”

* * * * *

Chapter 31

“
Where is she?” Agatha’s
temper was quickly rising.

“
We looked for her all
over,” Amanda said apologetically. “We even tried to find her on
Earth, but… no one seems to know where she is.”

“
Well she hasn’t left yet,
so she has to be somewhere!”

“
Excuse me…Queen.” Eugenia
said with derision. Agatha turned her head sharply to where Eugenia
stood. “There have been an increasing number of Heralds on our
trail. It’s been getting harder and harder to get spirits
alone.”

“
Well…deal with it! Trap
the Heralds if you have to!” Agatha responded.

“
Are we planning on
trapping the entire host?” Eugenia said sarcastically and Marcel
laughed.

Agatha glided over to her
and hovered inches away from her face.

“
The goal is to keep them
from progressing, so in my estimation, the more the merrier,”
Agatha said dryly, and then gliding away she continued. “We are,
however, running out of room…so our new strategy will be to get the
best ones,” she said in what she thought to be a stroke of genius.
“We need to get the Angels, the Heralds and the Sentinels! They are
the ones that pose the greatest threat to us in mortality, not the
weak-minded.” Agatha turned and started looking for someone.
“Pasqual, get me a count of who is here,” she snapped. “We’ll
reconvene as soon as he’s done, to see who needs to go.”

“
And in the meantime, my
Queen, what should the rest of us do?” Marcel asked in an oily
voice.

“
You choose a target and
get to know their movements,” Agatha ordered.

“
But Angels, especially
Heralds and Sentinels, follow that glowing thing of theirs, we have
no control over when and where they go. They are very
unpredictable,” Eugenia pointed out.

“
No matter, you follow
them and you find out where they are. Wait for them to be done with
whatever mission they are doing and when the opportunity presents
itself, catch them!” Agatha said, irritated.

“
They are often by
themselves, so it shouldn’t be hard,” Eros added with sage
experience. He had recently caught a Sentinel and had been very
full of himself ever since. Eugenia and Marcel rolled their eyes
and left the cavern in silent contempt.

“
I’ve had about enough of
those two. They need to be taught a lesson,” Eugenia complained,
once they cleared the cave.

“
I agree…and this last idea of
hers might just give us a chance to do it,” Marcel replied with a
cunning smile.

* * * * *

Chapter 32

Alex paced in the Angelic
Lounge long enough to be noticed by several passing spirits. Some
inquired if he was all right, and he assured them that he was, but
the alarm he felt was not without good cause. Several thoughts were
crowding his mind and he felt sure that if he could just hold Tess,
he would feel a lot better.

Time was going by so
quickly. Luz, Amor, and Paz had left, and Dorian had been called to
be Luz’s Guardian Angel. This was troubling, since it could only
mean that she could be old enough to be his mother by the time he
was born. By now Alex had learned that life came with no
guarantees, and that events hardly ever turned out the way one
imagined them.

In the background one of
the windows was re-playing the same news update, for what seemed
like the hundredth time.

“
I am outside the Gift of
Tongues building, at the scene of yet another disappearance. This
time the one to disappear was a highly trained Sentinel by the name
of Suy. He was last seen by his professor…”

Alex knew that he was being
followed and he feared that all of this was somehow connected with
Henry. He had to warn Tess, and he had to warn the rest of his
clan, but he couldn’t call them while they were on a
mission.

His own pendant was
glowing, and could not be ignored anymore. He left for training
frustrated and disappointed, but not before he set a piece of
parchment on the seat where his clan usually met.

As he exited the Angelic
Missions building he paused to look at all the spirits that were
around him. Then he proceeded to his training class with the
Cherubs. As soon as he left, two spirits who had been chatting
nearby, seemingly uninterested in him, stopped their conversation
abruptly and followed him at a safe distance.

Meanwhile, Tess and Katie
made their descent down the steps of the same building, and hurried
inside to look at the billboard.

*****

“
Everyone is busy!” Katie
said disappointed.

“
Wait a minute, why can’t
I see Luz’s name anywhere?” I wondered.

“
Paz and Amor are gone
too!”

I immediately checked
Dorian’s status, and he was on a Guardian Mission. But as we walked
to the lobby I realized that if Luz left, Dorian would be about to
leave as well, unless….

“
Tess…I think this is for
you,” Katie said as she handed me a piece of parchment.

Tess we are being followed.
Be careful and call me as soon as you can — telepathically of
course.

Alex

I tried to connect with
Alex, but to my surprise I could not. This worried me, because it
had never happened before. Unless he was on Earth—but I didn’t
think that distance would make a difference, it didn’t to the
Eternals.

As I read the note I
overheard one of the windows. There was an Angel reporting on the
disappearance of a Sentinel, and not just him but many other
spirits had gone missing lately. I immediately panicked. What if
Alex had disappeared as well?

I turned to talk to Katie,
but she was running toward a short, but well built and handsome
looking spirit with a quirky smirk on his face.

“
Jase!” Katie said and ran
into his arms.

I liked him at once. His
inner aura had a nice greenish-bluish hue to it, and the outside
irradiated the same color as Katie’s—bright love.

Katie came over and
introduced me to Jase and after this brief meeting, they left for
their next assignment together. They were taking a class on sea
creatures that they had been on a waiting list for. They left hand
in hand and oblivious to all except each other.

I looked down at my own
pendant, on it glowed a long list of classes. But I was resolved to
try Alex and find him before I went to anywhere.

“
Alex?”
I pleaded,
“please answer
me!”

“
Oh… finally, Tess, I
thought I was going to go crazy. Are you OK?”

“
Yes. Why didn’t you answer
before?”

“
Because I’m at Herald
training and we are practicing the whole clear your thoughts and go
to a happy place thing—apparently I blocked you as
well.”

“
No telepathic
communications please,”
Kerubiel’s
sonorous voice resounded in my head. “
Tell
Tess that she can call you after class.”

“
She can hear you,”
Alex pointed out.

“
She can? That’s
cool!”
Kerubiel said with sudden interest,
and then started to ask Alex all sorts of questions about our
mini-link.

“
Just be careful,”
was all Alex could say, in between his verbal
communication with Kerubiel.

Alex was right, we were
being followed. I could sense two specific spirits trailing me. I
didn’t recognize them, and though they were sloppy at hiding their
thoughts from me, they were still able to conceal themselves
visually pretty well. I did the same, and lost them quite easily,
but because I had to go to class, they eventually found me again.
But once I was back in my Gifts class my attention shifted to
something that looked more pressing—Irene’s and Leo’s
auras.

“
You are leaving?” I said,
rather surprised at how sad they looked.

“
Yes,” Irene said,
melancholy.

“
Have you checked on
Celeste lately?” I said trying to lighten up the mood, but instead
my comment seemed to make it worse. Leo looked away and Irene
looked at me apologetically.

“
Max is dead,” Irene
said.

My eyes must have grown
twice their size and my head started shaking instinctively. No
words would come, and Leo looked back at me mirroring the same
feelings.

“
I thought…that he would
be my father. I’ve been counting on that, I was his Guardian…I know
him so well.”

I tried to think of
something to say that would cheer him up or make him feel assured
somehow, but nothing came to mind. Then class started and we
couldn’t talk about it anymore.

After class I glided with
Irene and Leo to the Veil. They would be the first spirits I
actually got to say goodbye to. It was a somber affair for us. I
told Leo that perhaps Max would be assigned as his own Guardian
Angel, and that with his ability as a clairvoyant, he might even
get to see him. This thought seemed to give him a little
encouragement and after he held Irene and whispered things in her
ear, they stepped through the great mass of white that would erase
me and each other from their memories.

There were other spirits at
the Veil, most of them were happy and celebrating, others looked
more nervous, but none were sad—for most spirits this was a much
awaited time.

I turned to leave, when out
of the corner of my eye I saw two spirits coming toward me. I
watched as they came closer. They were happy, eager, sure of
themselves, and ready.

“
You came to see us off!”
Valerie said, touched by my presence.

I remained silent,
recovering from the shock of seeing them here.

“
I can’t believe it’s
time,” I said lamely.

“
We all knew it would come
sooner or later,” Dane said and put his arm around my shoulder,
patting it slightly.

In the distance I saw Katie
approaching with Jase happily attached to her hand.

“
I am so thrilled for you
guys!” Katie said as she released Jase and wrapped her arms around
Dane and Valerie. The three of them had gotten quite close since
Katie joined us. Then Katie introduced Jase to Valerie and Dane,
and they all chatted excitedly for a while.

Alex skidded to a stop
right in the middle of our gathering and hugged Valerie while he
shot me a wink over her shoulder. He hugged Dane, then came to my
side and gave me a long kiss amid protests and jeers from the
others.

“
We are so happy to see
you all here, and we hope to see you soon on the other side!” Dane
said while pulling Valerie toward the Veil. “I’m afraid though that
we might mess something up if we don’t leave right now.”

“
I love you all!” Valerie
said in an uncharacteristic sentimental tone.

I threw myself in her arms
one more time and Katie did too.

“
We’ll see you soon!”
Katie yelled after their disappearing forms.

Valerie was still looking
back at us and then the whiteness engulfed her.

“
Sooner than you think,”
Katie responded and we all turned to look at her.

She was holding her pendant
in her hands and lifted it up for us to see. Alex’s pendant was
glowing as well and after reading it he looked back up with a
jerk.