"I know the Joshua from my Earth." I look at Isaiah. "How did he get involved with you guys?"
"We saved the kid a few years ago," Baruch says. "He was put into a game of Bait but we were able to get him out before he became puppy chow."
"Now I"m their indentured servant," Josh says good naturedly from the driver"s seat.
"But you"re such a good little errand boy," Baruch teases. "Kind of like our pet human. Who else would make our coffee?"
"It"s true," Isaiah agrees, grinning. "The kid does make a good cup of coffee."
"Glad my talents are appreciated," Josh replies with a touch of sarcasm.
"So how many humans are there in this resistance of yours?"
"Thousands across the world," Isaiah tells me. "We"re just waiting for the right moment to attack. It"s going to have to be swift and unexpected if we want it to work. Plus, it"s hard to turn the Watchers who are sector Chancellors to our side. After being under Lucifer"s influence for so long, most of them don"t want to give their power up."
"Have you approached Malcolm?"
Both Baruch and Isaiah are stunned into silence by my question and then they both begin to chuckle.
"That narcissistic a.s.s?" Baruch says derisively. "He"ll never give up the power he has. He revels in being the center of attention too much."
"You"re wrong about him," I say, bringing their laughter to a halt. "He"s more than he appears."
"There"s no way he would help us," Baruch says with a shake of his head. "He and Brand have hated each other for millennia. Even if Malcolm did finally want to fight against Lucifer, he would never work under Brand willingly."
"If I were you, I wouldn"t write him off so readily. I think if you approached him the right way, he would help you. He just needs something to believe in. He needs someone to put a little faith in him."
"Don"t confuse our Malcolm with the one on your Earth," Baruch warns me. "You don"t know what the one in this reality has done."
"I know he"s done things he"s ashamed of," I answer, feeling an odd need to defend Malcolm. "There"s more to him than he"s let many people see. If there wasn"t, why would he let Mason and I go before Lucifer showed up at his place tonight?"
"He did?" Isaiah asks, surprise in his voice.
"Yes, he did. I think if you handled him correctly he could become a valuable ally."
Isaiah and Baruch fall silent as they each contemplate my words.
"We can discuss this further when we"re with Brand. He"ll have to be the final judge on any communication with Malcolm."
"Is Brand the leader of your resistance?"
"Yes," Isaiah tells me. "He held us together when Lucifer tore the Watchers apart."
The van comes to a stop.
"We"re here," Josh says.
Isaiah leans forward holding his hand out to me.
I place my hand in his and suddenly find myself standing in a large cement room which has been converted into living quarters. I get the feeling we"re underground in the windowless s.p.a.ce. The room is comfortable looking with newish looking furnishings. It reminds me of my father"s study in a way with its walls lined with book shelves. There"s a comfortable sitting area with a couch and some chairs. A dining area complete with table and chairs sits next to a large kitchen with dark wood cabinetry and stainless steel appliances and fixtures. A set of stairs leads up to a cement platform where the only door to the room is located.
Mason and Brand are sitting at the dining table with cups of coffee in front of them. When Mason sees me phase in with Isaiah, he immediately stands from his chair and walks over to me.
Mason envelopes me in his arms and I hear him sigh. For the first time since we traveled to this reality, I feel safe.
"If you gentlemen would excuse us for a moment," Mason says to the others before phasing us to what I have to a.s.sume is the hallway just outside the room we were in.
We"re in a corridor made of cement blocks. Low hanging, naked light bulbs line the ceiling. I feel like I"m in a fall out shelter or an abandoned wing of a subway tunnel.
Mason pulls away from me slightly.
"Are you all right?" He asks, his eyes examining every inch of my face to check for damage.
I nod. "I"m fine now."
Mason leans his head down to mine until our foreheads touch, taking a much needed steadying breath. I reach up and cup his face on either side before tilting my lips in towards his. Mason doesn"t need much coaxing and crushes his lips to mine, each of us desperate to feel the other, confirming that we"re both still alive.
I wrap my arms around Mason"s neck pulling him as deep as I can into me. His silky smooth tongue is demanding of mine, telling me he wants more than just a kiss. I wrap one leg around his hip. Mason slides his hand against that leg"s thigh and easily lifts me until both my legs are wrapped around his waist and he has me firmly wedged between him and the cement wall behind me. I feel his manhood grow large against me and smile against his lips, savoring the knowledge that the man I love can be affected by me so quickly. I don"t dare lift my mouth from Mason"s even though I"m desperate to take a real breath. I don"t want to lose this moment.
We hear someone clear their throat.
I know Mason heard them too but he refuses to let me go instantly. Instead, he slows the kiss and reluctantly pulls his lips away from mine. When he looks at me, his eyes are glazed over with pent up desire, and I know if we had remained alone for just a little while longer, we would have finally physically consummated our love for one another.
Strangely enough, the thought of us finally making love in the middle of a rather unromantic concrete hallway is just fine with me. I realize I don"t need the flower strewn bed with silky sheets and candlelight. I don"t need a romantic setting to make the moment special. All I need is Mason.
"Sorry to interrupt," Baruch says with Josh standing by his side, shuffling his feet nervously. "But I didn"t think the boy needed a first hand demonstration of the birds and the bees."
I feel myself blush under Baruch"s knowing gaze. And poor Josh just looks shyly embarra.s.sed.
"Joshua?" Mason questions staring at the double of our young friend from back home.
"Josh," he corrects. "Just Josh here. How do we know each other from where you come from?"
"I saved Joshua from a game of Bait a few years back," Mason says, and I realize this is the first time I"ve heard this story. "Ever since then he"s lived and worked with me because he didn"t have any other family. Most of the time the Watchers from my world pick on the homeless to use as bait in their games since no one would notice their disappearance."
"Sounds kind of like the way I ended up here," Josh says, realizing he and his counterpart on our Earth have very similar histories.
"We should probably go in," Baruch suggests. "I think we have a lot of information to exchange with each other."
Mason takes my hand and we follow Josh and Baruch back into the room.
Brand stands from his chair at the table when we approach. This version of Brand still has the same easy smile of the one I know from our world and it reminds me of how comfortable I"ve always felt in Lilly"s husband"s presence. Yet, unlike the Brand I"ve met, this Brand looks younger, somewhere in his early twenties would be my guess.
"Brand, this is Jess," Mason says in way of introduction.
Brand holds out his hand. "I"m sorry for the subterfuge earlier. I hope we didn"t startle you too much."
I hear Isaiah cough from his position behind the kitchen island.
I smile.
"I can usually take care of myself," I say confidently.
"Yes, that"s what Isaiah told me," Brand replies, watching his friend"s slow progress to the table with an amused twinkle in his eyes.
"Please sit down," Brand says to us. "We have a lot to discuss."
Mason and I sit beside each other across from the three Watchers. Josh makes his way to the kitchen area and starts a new pot of coffee.
Mason keeps hold of my hand and rests it on his thigh. I smile and look over at him. He looks at me and winks. I wink back. I feel safe in the knowledge that as long as we"re together there"s nothing we can"t handle.
"So I take it you two are a couple," Brand says.
Baruch clears his throat, reminding me he"s seen this statement played out as fact.
"Yes," I answer, attempting to ignore Baruch. "Speaking of couples, where"s Lilly?"
Brand looks confused by my question. "Who"s Lilly?"
"You don"t know who Lilly is?" I ask, sure I look just as confused as Brand now.
"No, I have no idea who you"re talking about," Brand says, his eyebrows lowering in concern. "Is she someone important to me in your reality?"
Mason and I look at one another.
"How can Lilly not exist here?" I ask him. "I thought she would be important in every reality considering what she did."
"I"m not sure why she"s not here," Mason tells me, looking just as confused as I am before returning his attention back to Brand.
"I"m going to name some people to you," Mason tells Brand. "Let me know if any of them ring a bell. Caylin, Will, Tara, Malik, Utha Mae. Do you know any of those people?"
"I know a Will," Brand answers. "He"s a rebellion angel who works for Lucifer. And I know a Malik. He"s the leader of the fae here. The others don"t sound familiar to me. Should they?"
Mason"s eyes become hooded and I know this new information troubles him.
"Can you tell me how the Tear was made on this Earth?" Mason asks Brand.
"What do you mean made?" Brand asks back, looking between Mason and me. "It just appeared in our sky one night. No one knows where it came from."
Mason looks down at the table contemplating Brand"s answer. I watch as he closes his eyes and shakes his head as if he is just now realizing something very important.
"I never knew," Mason whispers as if talking to himself.
I squeeze Mason"s hand making him look over at me.
"Never knew what?" I ask, not liking the way he"s reacting to whatever conclusion he"s come to. "What"s wrong?"
Mason looks at me and I can tell he"s in a state of complete and utter shock.
"The Earth we live on," he says, measuring his words carefully. "The reality we exist in... it"s the Origin."
I feel more than see the other three Watchers in the room tense at Mason"s statement.
"The Origin?" Baruch questions. "How do you know that for certain?"
"It"s the only explanation that makes sense. We know how the Tear was made because it was made in our reality. It explains why Lilly doesn"t exist here. She wasn"t needed in this reality, only ours."
"Does that mean I don"t exist here either?" I ask.
"That would be my guess," Mason says. "Albert couldn"t find you in the database so odds are you don"t have a counterpart here. You"re not needed here. You"re only needed in our reality."
"You still haven"t told me who Lilly is and why you expected her to be here with me," Brand says. "And if you could throw in an explanation of how the Tear was made, we"d appreciate it."
"Lilly is your wife in our reality," Mason says, not trying to sugar coat the facts no matter how surprising they might sound to this Brand. "She is the human child of Michael. In our reality, she stopped Lucifer from destroying the universe, but while he was trying to collapse the veils he tore a hole between them instead which formed the Tear."
"We always wondered what happened to make it just appear one night. It never occurred to me that an event in the Origin was the cause. So this Lilly, my wife in your reality, is the child of an archangel?" Brand asks like such a possibility is a foreign concept to him. "I"ve never heard of such a coupling being allowed to happen."
Mason looks over at me silently questioning if he should say what I am too. I nod seeing no reason to hide the information from the three sitting across from us.
"In our reality," Mason begins, "G.o.d has sent the seven archangels to our Earth. They melded their souls with human ones. Jess"s soul is bonded to Michael"s soul." Mason pauses to let that information sink in before he continues. "At some point on our Earth, they"re meant to fight Lucifer and the princes of h.e.l.l to stop them from doing something. We haven"t quite figured out what that something is yet but we"re pretty confident it won"t be pleasant for any of us."
"Then why are you here?" Brand asks. "If Jess is needed in the Origin, why come to our reality?"
"My sister traveled here," I tell them. "Apparently she and Malcolm"s son traded places when the Tear opened earlier this evening. We came here to get her and take her back home."
"And how do you plan to get back to your Earth?" Baruch asks.
"G.o.d will open the Tear for us when the time is right," I say.
"You speak directly with Him?" Isaiah asks, eagerly leaning forward in his chair to hear my answer.
"That"s a recent development," I say. "To be honest I just started to believe in his existence."
I almost laugh at the expressions on the faces of the angels across from me. Confused was too small of a word to explain their reaction to my blunt honesty.
"But you carry Michael"s soul," Brand says, voicing what I have to presume they"re all thinking. "Why haven"t you believed in Him before now?"
"It"s a long story," I say.
"One that isn"t exactly pertinent at the moment," Mason tells them, saving me from having to go into any details about my life thus far. "But I have a few questions which are."
"You can ask us anything," Brand says openly.
"Malcolm told us I was killed in the war with Lucifer in this reality."
"Yes, that"s correct. Lucifer killed you himself actually."
"If I"m dead here, who became the leader of the Watchers when you were sent to Earth?"