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  Blessed

  The Watchers

  Book 2

  By

  S.J. West

  ©2012 S.J. West. All Rights Reserved.

  Chapter 1 My life is blessed. Everyone should be woken up with kisses at least once in their lifetime. I could feel Brand’s warm lips gently coaxing me to leave the world of dreams and join him in our reality. I opened my eyes only to be mesmerized by the pale beauty of the man, my angel, lying next to me on my pillow.

  “Good morning,” he murmured in between kisses which felt like the gentle flutter of butterfly wings against my skin.

  We lay there basking in the joy of being close to one another. How had I ever doubted Brand was the love I’d been waiting for all my life? I realized the feelings I once harbored for Will were just a glimmer of what true love was meant to feel like.

  “You seemed to sleep well,” Brand said brushing his fingertips against the side of my face instantly making me feel cherished.

  “I must have been exhausted. I don’t even think I had a dream.”

  But if I didn’t dream…

  “You didn’t sleep last night?” I asked. I knew if Brand had slept and dreamt I would have experienced his fantasy world. Just one of the peculiarities about myself I had discovered in the last few days.

  “I didn’t have any reason to dream,” he said. “I already had you in my arms.”

  I couldn’t help but smile even though his words sounded like they were a direct quote from a sappy romance novel.

  “How do you do that?”

  “Do what?” he asked perplexed.

  “Make my heart melt with just a few words.”

  He smiled, obviously pleased. “My words only affect you because you know I mean them.”

  After a long while of enjoying each other’s company, we decided it was time to get out of bed and face the day we had ahead of us.

  I knew we had promised my best friend Tara we would explain everything to her about my abduction and why Malcolm had lied to the police saying we had spent the six days I was missing vacationing together in Las Vegas. I wasn’t looking forward to the talk with her. Telling her everything would just make the events of the past few days even more real for me. She was my only ground in an insane world. I knew after she knew everything, nothing would be the same again. I wouldn’t be able to go back to the way my life had been before. But, was that a bad thing? Trading in my ordinary existence for a chance at an extraordinary life with Brand seemed like a fair exchange.

  Brand went down to cook some breakfast while I hopped into his bath tub for a quick shower. When I was done, I turned off the water and slid the curtain aside to step out.

  “I can’t believe he left you alone.”

  I quickly grabbed the shower curtain to hide behind almost yanking it off its rail. Through the steam collected in the bathroom, I could see Malcolm leaning casually with his back against the door facing me. Of course he wore his red silk shirt open to expose his model perfect chest and a pair of tight black jeans which left little to the imagination.

  “Malcolm! What are you doing?” I hissed. I felt my cheeks flush hotly. How much had he been able to see through the fog in the room? From the leering grin and pleased look on his face, I assumed he had seen a lot more of me than anyone else in the world had, except for maybe Utha Mae and my mom.

  “I came to make sure you were all right, dearest. I did promise Tara I would stop by and check in on you. Anyway, it’s a good thing I did. You shouldn’t be left alone.”

  “You need to leave. If Brand finds you in here, there’s going to be trouble and that’s the last thing I need right now.”

  “I could take him in a fight.” Malcolm shrugged his shoulders like it wasn’t a big deal.

  “Please, Malcolm,” I pleaded. “For my benefit he’s trying to accept you. I don’t want to ruin that. You’re my friend. I don’t want there to be anymore tension than there already is between the two of you.”

  With a sigh of resignation, Malcolm said, “Oh, all right. But can I at least gloat about seeing you naked before he has?” Malcolm grinned, lifting his eyebrows up and down suggestively.

  I tried to hold my temper in check. I didn’t need to start yelling at my friend for his inappropriate behavior even though I desperately wanted to.

  “You know the answer to that,” I told him through clenched teeth, feeling like I was scolding a teenage boy instead of an angel more ancient than time itself. “Now get out. And don’t forget about going to my apartment later for our talk with Tara. I’ll call you when we’re ready.”

  Malcolm made an extravagant bow with a sweep of his arm in my direction.

  “As you command, dearest.”

  Malcolm phased out of the bathroom to points unknown. I just hoped it wasn’t anywhere near Brand.

  After he left, I stood motionless for a good minute just to make sure he wasn’t planning to phase back in uninvited. When it seemed the coast was clear, I grabbed a towel and went back into Brand’s bedroom.

  I really didn’t want to put the T-shirt and jeans I’d been wearing for the last six days back on but didn’t have much of a choice; although, maybe I could phase back into my apartment long enough to grab some fresh clothes. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my bedroom. I really didn’t have a clue how I had phased out of my prison cell the night before right as I was suppose to meet the person who wanted me dead. I just remembered thinking about Brand and wanting to be with him. Maybe if I just thought hard enough about where I wanted to go, it would work again.

  I’m not sure how long I stood there trying to phase back into my apartment, but I eventually gave up and just put my old jeans back on. I rummaged through Brand’s chest of drawers and found a plain white T-shirt to wear.

  I made my way back downstairs and found Brand setting the table. I must have been trying to phase into my apartment a lot longer than I thought. At least long enough for Brand to make omelets, chocolate waffles, scones, bacon, sausage, and what looked like freshly squeezed orange juice.

  “Are we expecting guest?” I asked surveying the feast.

  “No, I just wanted to give you plenty to choose from. I wasn’t sure how hungry you would be. Did they feed you?”

  “Yes.”

  I didn’t want to talk about that aspect of my time away. I didn’t feel like reliving any of Robert’s visits or what happened before I was able to escape. I knew I would have to tell Brand about my experiences eventually, but I didn’t want to do it just yet. I wasn’t ready.

  When I looked up from the table into Brand’s eyes, I could tell he knew I wasn’t telling him the whole truth with my simple yes, but he didn’t push me to tell him anything more.

  “Lilly?”

  I turned to the front door at the gentle whisper of my name from a friendly, familiar voice. Abby stood there wearing a sherbet orange and pink wig and white flowing summer dress. She walked to me quickly, embracing me in a tight hug.

  “Are you all right, love?” She pulled away slightly to look up at me with her hazel brown eyes. “I’ve been worried sick about you. What happened?”

  Brand and I gave Abby the condensed version of the events after my capture by Justin, not really wanting to dwell on the specifics. The pain of our forced separation was still too fresh. We invited Abby to have breakfast with us. She of course jumped at the opportunity since she hated to cook for herself. Rose Marie usually did all of her cooking but Abby told me she and Carl would be gone for a while.

  “Their mother is sick so they needed to go home to be with her,” Abby told us.

  “I didn’t realize they were brother and sister,” though now that I knew they were related, they did share certain physical traits with each other.

  “They probably wo
n’t be back for a month or more.”

  I couldn’t honestly say I would miss Rose Marie. She always made me feel uncomfortable when I was around her. She didn’t seem to like me for some reason. I barely knew Carl so his absence wasn’t particularly troubling to me either.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Brand sitting back in his chair watching Abby and I talk with one another. I got the distinct feeling he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure if he should. Finally, he cleared his throat gaining our full attention.

  “I’m not sure if this is the right time to tell you this,” Brand said to me hesitantly. “But I feel funny having you both sit here and you not knowing who Abby really is. I don’t want there to be any secrets between us.”

  What was he talking about? Abby was his cousin, wasn’t she? Oh, but how could that be if he was an angel?

  “Is Abby an angel to?” I asked.

  “No.”

  The worried look in Brand’s eyes told me he was concerned about how I would react to his next words.

  “She’s my daughter.”

  I looked back at Abby completely dumbstruck by this announcement.

  “Well about bloody time that was out in the open,” Abby said pouring a liberal amount of syrup onto her waffles. “I really hate lying to people I like.”

  “Daughter?” I turned to Brand, still trying to wrap my brain around what he just said.

  “You remember when Tara asked me if I’d ever been in love, that day on the Common’s terrace?”

  I nodded mutely.

  “Abby’s mother was that woman.”

  “But I thought that was a long time ago? Abby looks like she’s in her twenties.”

  “Our children age but at an incredibly slow rate,” Brand answered.

  Which brought up an interesting question, “You don’t age do you?”

  “No,” he said, almost like he was apologizing for his immortality.

  It was all he had to say. There was no way we would be able to grow old together and have a normal life even though he wanted that just as much as I did. It was a detail which would have to take a number in the line of my worries. I didn’t really care what people might think about us later in life when I was eighty and he still looked like he did now. Why should I fret about what people thought as long as I got to spend my life with him? But what worried me most was Brand. How would he feel being left behind after I died?

  It was a concern which would have to be pushed back for now, too far in the future to be classified as a real problem at the moment. Right now we needed to focus on the present. Like finding out what Lucifer’s plan was for me, who ordered Justin to kidnap and murder me, and why I possessed the power to phase like an angel.

  “You’re not upset about it are you?” Abby asked me, mistaking the reason for my silence.

  I put my hand over Abby’s resting beside me on the table.

  “No,” I squeezed her hand lightly before letting it go. “It doesn’t bother me. I’m just glad to know the truth.”

  “Good,” she said relieved. “I always thought you’d understand. Now I don’t have to wear these wigs around you anymore.” Abby pulled the sherbet colored wig off revealing the most beautiful head of white hair I’ve ever seen. It shimmered in the light as she ran her fingers through the strands like they were made from diamond dust.

  “Why do you cover that up?” I asked experiencing an uncontrollable urge to run my own fingers through her white mane.

  “It draws a lot of attention,” she answered. “I’ve tried dying it but it doesn’t stick. So I wear the wigs when I have to go out.”

  “Are the contacts used to hide something too?” I asked.

  “No, I just like them,” she confessed with a guilty smile. “They look like Dad’s naturally.”

  I wanted to ask Brand if there was anyway he and I would ever be able to have children of our own. I was pretty sure I already knew the answer to that from what Malcolm had told me not so long ago. He said the mothers of the children of the Watchers lost their lives early in the pregnancy because their bodies were taken over by the babies, leaving the mother’s body an empty shell, simply kept alive until the child was ready to be born. I can’t say it didn’t make me a bit sad to realize I would never give birth to a child of my own but having children had never been a high priority for me.

  After we ate breakfast and cleaned up, I called Tara to let her know we were on our way to the apartment.

  “I’ll be waiting,” was all she said.

  I knew then she was definitely not going to make this easy on us.

  I called Will and Malcolm to let them know we were heading over to talk with Tara. I knew it was going to be hard to explain everything to her, and I needed the back up of my small troupe of angels to face the challenge.

  “Maybe it won’t be so bad, love,” Abby said to me before we left Brand’s house.

  “No, Tara knows we’ve all been lying to her,” I replied, an uncomfortable knot forming in the pit of my stomach. “She won’t let that go by easily. I can’t say I blame her. I’d be mad too.”

  “She’ll understand,” Brand put a comforting arm around my waist. “She was devastated when we couldn’t find you. I’ve never seen a human grieve the way she did. I think once she gets the answers she needs everything will be fine.”

  When we arrived at the apartment, Will and Malcolm were already in the parking lot, sitting in their cars waiting on our arrival. I could only assume they didn’t want to be the first one to go in and be met by Tara’s questions before I got there. I hugged them both and thanked them for coming to help.

  When I stepped into the apartment, I definitely noticed a tension in the air I had never felt before.

  Tara was sitting in a chair at the kitchen table with her hands clasped tightly together in front of her watching us all file in one by one. I felt like an errant schoolgirl about to be disciplined by her teacher. I sat across from her while everyone else found a place to stand or sit in the small living room.

  “Start explaining,” was all she said to me.

  “What do you want to know first?”

  “Where were you? And why did Malcolm lie to the police?”

  “I was being held captive by someone. Malcolm lied because there wasn’t any reason to tell the police where I’d been or who had me. There isn’t anything they can do to him and more than likely they would have just thought I’d gone insane if I’d tried to tell them the truth.”

  “Who had you? Why wouldn’t the police believe the truth?”

  I took a deep breath and explained what I knew to Tara: everything about Brand, Will, and Malcolm being fallen angels; everything about the strange accidents that had happened in my life including the loss of the real Will that night at the lake and the fact the Will we knew had been sent by Lucifer to protect me from them; and almost everything which happened to me while I was being held captive by Justin. I tried to be as concise with what I knew as I could be.

  “That’s all I know,” I finished. “If you need to know anything else, you’ll have to ask one of the guys.”

  Tara sat through my explanation without saying a word, hardly moving, just staring at me.

  She looked to the roomful of angels behind me and then looked back at me.

  “Lilly, have you lost your mind? Did somebody brainwash you while you were gone?”

  “No, Tara. You wanted the truth. I just told you the truth. I know it sounds crazy but it’s the way things are.”

  “What did y’all do to her?” She stood up and walked closer to the guys. “Lilly ain’t never lied to me before now, and I want to know what’s going on!”

  “It’s not a lie, Tara,” Will said. “Everything she just told you is the truth.”

  “Oh yeah? Prove it.” She crossed her arms over her chest and dared them to do something to show her what I had said was true.

  One by one they all disappeared in front of her eyes and then reappeared.

  Tara
became a blur of motion as she dashed into her bedroom and slammed the door shut behind her.

  I glared at the guys as I stood and went to her door. “You could have given her some warning.”

  Malcolm grinned and shrugged. Brand looked worried and came to stand with me at her door and Will responded with, “She said she wanted proof, Lilly. It was the simplest way.”

  “Oh Lord Jesus,” I could Tara praying behind her door. “What the hell’s going on?”

  “Tara, are you all right? I know it wasn’t the most subtle way to show you I wasn’t lying but you can’t deny what you just saw either.”

  “Oh yes I can!”

  I looked to Brand, at a complete loss as to what we should do.

  “Tara?” Brand said through the door. “You have nothing to fear from us. Come back out so we can all talk.”

  “Y’all just need to stay away from me!”

  “Tarajinka Shovanda Jenkins,” Will said as he came to join me and Brand by the door. “If you don’t open this door, I’m coming in there!”

  “You just stay where you are, Will Allen! Or whatever the hell you are!”

  “This is absurd,” Will said and vanished.

  I heard Tara scream like she’d been stabbed.

  “Stop that, Tara,” I heard Will admonish her on the other side of the door. “You’re being ridiculous. You’ve known me all your life. Have I ever tried to harm you in any way in all that time?”

  I could tell Tara was thinking about what he said because she was quiet.

  “Well there was that time you put that spider in my bed,” she said. “I ain’t never forgave you for that, Will Allen.”

  “We were nine years old, for goodness’ sake, Tara. It was a prank.”

  “Well it sure enough seemed evil to me. How do I know the devil didn’t put you up to it?”

  “Tara, you’re being silly,” he told her. “We’re best friends. Lilly is standing outside that door right now and you’re sitting in here cowering in your bedroom. I know how much you missed her when she was gone. She needs you to be strong for her now. We all need to help her figure out what’s going on.”