Earth Keeper

Chapter Six

I awoke to the smell of fresh coffee and fried eggs. Sitting up in bed, I felt refreshed, relaxed, and filled with the sweet lingering memory of the hours before. My heart fluttered as I watched Dekker walk through the door, tray in hand. He slid next to me while I propped the pillows up against the backboard. He set the tray down over our laps and leaned in to plant a light and sweet kiss on my lips.

“Hey beautiful.” He said and then gestured with his hands to dig in. I did, swallowing down a healthy helping of scrambled eggs, followed by a slice of wheat toast with grape jelly, and two sausage links. I sipped my coffee while Dekker finished off the platter.

“That was delicious, you’re a great cook.” I said between sips. He thanked me between bites and offered me half of the last piece of toast which I accepted. I nibbled and sipped while he set the tray on the floor then opened the night stand drawer and pulled out a large object wrapped in one of his t shirts.  He Unwrapped the shirt with care, then held the object out towards me. A book, bound in thick leather with odd symbols and pictures. When I made no move to take it, he placed it onto my lap like a delicate piece of glass. .

“This is what I wanted to show you last night.” he said. I felt his eyes on me, waiting for a reaction. My heart fluttered and my mouth went dry. I gulped the last of my coffee down before handing him the mug and ran my fingers over the ancient book.  Could this hold the key to who I am? I bit my lip. I knew once I opened it and saw what was inside, what life changing information this thing held, there was no turning back.
Am I ready for this? Is this what I truly want? Yes. I need to know. Do I have to know, this second?  My nerves begged me to stall. My heart begged me to look. I managed to tear my eyes away from the book and turned my body towards Dekker. He looked as anxious and as scared as I did. I felt relieved but only slightly.

“Why do you think I should see this?”

“Because I think it’s about who you are or will be anyway. It’s your history, ours too I think. You need to know,” his voice sincere, “it’s just not right, them keeping this from you all this time.” He urged me to look. I took a deep breath and opened the book. Turning each page with a slow shaking hand, my brain slowly took in beautiful images and ancient symbols.  I felt Dekker tense up when I reached the last page. I turned to him with wide eyes.

“That’s me?” I knew the answer, but I asked anyway. His confirmation made it all the more real when he nodded slowly, his eyes scanning me for more of a reaction. “Why am I in here? Am I one of those people?” I quickly backtracked to the page with the angelic type of women standing on a drawing of the earth and pointed to the obvious.

“I think so, but I’m not sure.” he said.

“You’re not sure? You mean you don’t know?” 

“I know your part of them, the immortals, and I KNOW you have a bigger role in this story than anyone else in this book Leila. Your picture in here is proof.” I didn’t say anything. He took a deep breath. “Look, I know this is overwhelming but it is our history. The immortals, have been around, well, forever, see.” He flipped to the first page. It showed the world as a seed and two immortals planting it. At least that was my interpretation of it. And the next pages showed them living among the humans. Dekker explained that back then there was peace and harmony for many years until one day, one of the immortals daughters fell in love with a human and conceived his child.

“Is that you?” I asked pointing to the picture of a baby cradled in a beautiful woman’s arms. He shook his head.

“No this was centuries ago. My mother was a mortal. She died…” he trailed off sadness creeping in his gorgeous eyes. 

“I’m so sorry Dekker. I don’t know what else to say, I never knew my mother.” I said weaving my fingers through his. He lifted my hand to his lips kissing it softly.

“She died giving birth to me. Max never talks about her.” He shrugged. “You are so beautiful Leila.” He stroked my cheek and pulled me closer for a kiss. For a long time our lips remained locked, then reluctantly I pulled away and looked down at the manuscript. The colors, the symbols, the paintings seemed animated in a way. My fingers trailed over an image of three women wrapped in white cloth. The stood in v formation. A large full moon and black clouds served as the background for this particular picture. A tall slender woman with fiery red hair formed the v. Her eyes were on the horizon. The blonde to the right of her looked bored and the one opposite the blonde seemed sad. Her long black hair reached the ground and gave the illusion of flowing off of the page. In this book, every image popped out like it was alive. My finger stopped at the black haired woman.

“That’s her. She’s the one,” I said.  I turned my attention to him. “Right?” His lips stretch in that sexy half smirk. The one that makes me shudder from head to toe.

“Yeah her name is… wait how did YOU know?” I shrugged. I didn’t know how I knew, I just did. I also knew that they weren’t here anymore.

“What happened to them? Where are they? Why did they leave? Are they coming back? I could hardly contain myself. All these questions came to mind and I wanted answers.

“Whoa, whoa, wait slow down.” he said both hand up in a stop position. “We’ll get to that ok. First let me finish. “I nodded and gestured with my hand for him to continue.  He took a second to recollect his thoughts and resumed. “She kept her son secret because it was forbidden for her to be with a mortal so she had her lover care for him. She made no contact with them over the years and the man grew lonely, upset, and felt abandoned by her. As their son grew older he began to show extra uh, talents. Back then people took notice and it wasn‘t a good thing. They thought him bewitched and set out to kill him. In fear for his son, the man sought out the Daughters of Eve and begged them to protect him. Since it was forbidden, they executed the boy without hesitation and banished the man to the other end of the earth, the dark end. When the woman protested and grieved them new it was her wrong doing. Collectively, all the immortals agreed to take away her fertility. She was known as the mother of all things, the symbol of life. To take that away from her was the worst punishment possible. They decided that walking among the mortals was too dangerous. They couldn’t be found out, so they watched over their earth inconspicuously and eventually became known as gods to some. “He stopped talking to look at me. “Are you ok Leila?” I wiped my tears and sniffled.

“That poor boy. He was innocent he didn’t know. Go on.” I urged between sobs. He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me closer. I snuggled into him as he turned the page.

“Meanwhile, the man became burdened with guilt, that later festered into hate, and finally full blown rage. The darkness lured him in and not long after he led an army, a dead army, after the sisters to avenge his son’s death, and his main target was his former lover.” He spared a glance to check if I was ok. I mustered up a weak smile to reassure him. “One by one, he and his army picked them off until there were only four immortals left for each corner of the earth, See.” he pointed to a picture of earth with four points on each side. “Since their numbers dwindled considerably, and the dead army grew larger with each attack, they created the protectors. The original ones like David and Max were made.

“Wait, what about Brandon?” I spoke to his chest. He loosened his grip and I protested snuggling closer into him. He smelled so good.

“I’m getting to that Leila. Patience.” He kissed the top of my head and continued.

“They are allowed to mate with other originals and that’s where Brandon comes along. They are also forbidden to mate with mortals and create well, us for example. I think that’s why you’re being hunted and also why David is trying so hard to protect you by not telling you anything.” He took a long slow deep breath and exhaled the same way. He positioned himself to face me and I lifted my head to stare into his serious dark eyes. “This is just my theory Leila, I have no hard evidence. Only what I’ve discerned from this book.  I asked Max once and he shut down as fast David did when you asked him. But he never denied anything, so I think I’m right or very close to the facts.” He stared off and away into a corner of the room deep in thought. I suspected this wasn’t his first attempt at this theory. Based on his idea alone, supposing there is validity to any of it, I see plenty of off things. First, why would I be hunted by the dead army if I am only one half immortal? If I am a descendant of a protector like Brandon, then why do I need protectors? Why am I not a protector? And another thing I’m thinking, maybe… and this is a big stretch, what if there was another child born by another one of those women and that child is still hidden? Could I be her? I shook my head. Of course not, that was so long ago, and I remember being a child. Brandon and David were there the whole time. Who were my parents? I never asked myself or cared until now. Could David be my father? He felt like a father to me. My heart pulsed in agony remembering the turmoil between us. I needed to fix our situation immediately. I’ll figure out how later. There is so much to think about I don’t know where to begin. All these questions and no one to get answers from. I sat up. Dekker still deep in thought didn’t notice me wrapping my arms around his chest. It wasn’t until I said something that he snapped out of it.

“Thank you. I wish I knew all the answers to our questions too.” I said resigned.

“Welcome to my world Leila. I always hit a dead end. Now that you came along, a new door opened up and I think we could maybe figure this out together or at least try.” he shrugged as if he was asking me to find his lost slippers under the bed. I have a feeling that this search is going to be considerably complex and extremely dangerous maybe perilous. Dekker has no idea what he’s asking to get into. I don’t think he has seen major violence other than on TV and maybe a fist fight or two in high school. I remember him telling me he went to school. I shifted to get up and straddled him. Pinning him against the headboard, I held his shoulders down and yelled at him.

“You don’t realize how dangerous this is. You could die. I could die. I almost did.” My words came out choppy as realization hit me harder than a demons claw. I think saying it out loud and hearing myself say the words made it real. I haven’t talked about what happened. I never mentioned that I knew a demon survived and that I almost died because of him. Without any warning, the tears came rushing down my face. Dekker gently removed my hands from his shoulders and wrapped his arms around me. I buried my face in his chest and wept while he whispered comforting words into my hair. I tried desperately to regain control of myself as my chest heaved and hiccupped between breaths and after a few futile attempts; I relaxed into Dekker and cried my heart out. After some time, my loud sobbing stopped and only the constant stream of tears remained. Then his soothing voice began again. “Shh. Shh. It’s ok baby. It’s just us here. You’re safe with me Leila. Shh. Let it out baby. I’m right here. I’m right here. Shh.” His strong hands rubbed my back in a circling motion, and he kissed the top of my head over and over.  I felt safe with him; I felt so many things with him. I focused on his breathing, the rhythmic rise and fall distracting me from my thoughts.  It didn’t take long for the stream to dwindle down to drops and my breath to even out enough for me to speak. Dekker stopped me before I got the first word out. 

“No, don’t,” he said, rearranging me to cradle position. “I promise to protect you Leila; I won’t let anything happen to you. Not because I am a protector now, that has nothing to do with it. I love you Leila, that’s why. I love you.” lifting my head to look at him, I wiped my tears with the back of my hand. His dark eyes held no sign of humor. He meant the words, said them without hesitation.

I believed him, but as his words registered in my head, a new emotion surfaced, one that surprised me, fear. Bad things happen to me, I’ve come to terms with it. It’s inevitable and unavoidable. My fear is for Dekker. His love for me is dangerous and my feelings for him only hinder my plans to move on. Nothing is going as planned. Not that I have a solid plan. But our stay here has been way too long and that complicates things, makes it harder to leave.  How can he protect himself when he isn’t remotely aware of what the demons are capable of? With my new found knowledge of them, I realize we need to step up our game. Telling Brandon is my best bet for success. Brandon will believe me and best of all he will back me up which is what I need right now. Especially when David returns, I have no clue how he is going to react, but I’m sure it’s not going to be pretty. I kissed Dekker before jumping off the bed and made my way across the hall to his bathroom. Thinking of different ways to tell Brandon my secret, I scrubbed my face over the old fashioned porcelain sink, and then dried off with a thick dark blue towel that hung on a rack over the toilet seat. It didn’t dawn on me until that moment that I never returned to Max’s last night. Brandon will be waiting for me. I’m surprised he hasn’t broken the door down and killed Dekker. Hurrying back across the hall, I grabbed the borrowed jacket and shoved my feet in my shoes. Dekker stood up and rushed to my side, concern all over his face.

“I have to go back. Brandon’s going to freak out if I don’t. It will better for you to stay here, just in case. That way you can hear him coming and you’ll have the heads up.” I kissed him again, this kiss I took my time with, enjoying the taste of him then ran out of his room, and made my way out of his little home. The air greeted me with sweet fragrances and helped to settle my nerves. I made a point to slow down and take in the beautiful view. There is so much to see here.  I heard heavy footsteps behind me and silently cursed.  He never listens.
           
“Wait up babe you can’t face Brandon’s wrath without me. I promised to protect you, remember?” He stepped in front of me before finishing his sentence; His broad smile lit up his eyes and sent my heart aflutter.

“Yeah I remember.” I said smiling back. Wrapping my arms around his neck I pulled him in for a deep passionate kiss. When we finally stopped and caught our breath, we walked towards Max’s house hand in hand ready to face Brandon together.