“Nicky? Is that you?” my mother exclaimed.
I threw my hands in the air and screamed. What the Hell was going on? Why did it always feel like I was the last person to know anything?
“In the flesh!” Nick answered, wrapping my mother in a huge hug, and swinging her in circles while she giggled.
“How’s your mother?” Mom asked when he put her down.
I could feel the frustration percolating in me. I was about to explode.
“Quite well. She sends her love.”
My mother looked at me and grinned. “Dawny, this is Nick Peterson. Mary’s son!”
She said this like I was supposed to remember him from somewhere. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I accidentally shot a fireball at the wall, earning a look of disapproval.
“Mary’s son? As in your sister-in-law?” I asked slowly. I wanted to make sure I was on the same page as them. I didn’t remember this Nick; I remembered a much smaller-framed boy.
“Yes!” she squealed. “You were, what, sixteen the last time you saw him.”
I looked at Nick, who had this guilty expression on his face. He could have told me all of this during our conversation. He didn’t have to be so mysterious to get his point across. If I had known he was family, the whole ordeal would have been much easier to handle.
“Dawn, I didn’t mean to keep the information from you,” he said. “But if you had known that I was connected to that part of your past, I suspect you wouldn’t have talked to me.” Then he glanced at my mother. “Have you had any demons here recently?” he asked innocently.
My mother smiled and blushed. “Yes, but I let him go home to his wife.” She sighed.
My dad had been gone for a few weeks now. I had to admit this was the first time she had probably smiled since he left. There was still some form of magic between the two of them. Maybe they couldn’t be together, but they still harbored strong feelings for each other.
“So why do we get to enjoy the pleasure of your company?” she asked, changing the subject. “Are you on some epic mission?”
“You could say that.” His smile faded.
“Oh.” My mother clearly sensed his seriousness. “I see. What is it that you need? What are you searching for?”
“I think you know why I’m here.” He shot a look at me. “Angie, she has to know the truth.”
“I know, I know.” She threw her hands in the air. “I was just hoping that there would be no need to find her.” She smiled a small, frail smile in my direction. “Remember when I told you that your ascending had begun? The increase in your power and your pull to various levels was extraordinary. Though you cannot control it yet, it looks like you have made your way down the path to the reason you were born.”
“What are you talking about, Mom?” I crossed my arms in fear that I might shoot flames at her if she said the wrong thing.
“I’m talking about your birthright.” She looked at Nick and shook her head at him. “She’s not ready to know yet.”
“She has to know, Angie. She needs to know everything.” He touched her on her shoulder, and she wiped a tear from her eyes.
“What do I need to know?” I groaned with impatience. What was the matter with these people?
I sensed that up to this point I had only been told just enough to give me a basic understanding of what I was. I had always been kept on the outside looking in, with minimal knowledge of who and what I was. I had thought I had it all figured out. All I had to do was choose a side, and I could live a relatively normal life. I was really getting tired of the rules changing like this.
“Your step-father was a Protector,” my mother said, biting her lip. “After your father and I split, I was alone. I needed something that would mask my existence in this world. The Equalizers were after me. The best way to not be Angelina Weathers was to become Angie Peterson. When I changed who I was, they stopped searching for me.” She glanced at Nick. “We didn’t love each other at first; it was all arranged by the church. And in fact, we didn’t love each other in the truest sense until right before he died. Everything had been just for convenience in the beginning. When you moved in, his duties increased. He was overly attached to you.”
“He sure had a funny way of showing it,” I muttered. “So, you’re telling me, that man, who messed around with you your whole marriage was hired to keep you alive?”
I gritted my teeth. I had been living this colossal lie. Everything seemed to have been predetermined. Wesley’s mother knew me before I knew him. Nick was my cousin in one life, but a Prophet in another. Now my stepfather was revealed to be a Protector. Finally, I was a Warden. Whatever that was.
“At first, yes,” my mother answered. She glanced at the floor and then back to her nephew. “So, Nick, what are you? Did you get Protector or Prophet blood?” She didn’t seem to be trying to change the subject. It came across more as her trying to pinpoint what she was up against. Maybe as a way to test the waters, just to see how much she had to tell me.
“Prophet, like my mother,” Nick replied proudly.
“May I see them?” my mother asked, pointing at his back. Her eyes were glistening, and there was a small amount of perspiration on her top lip. She was excited about something.
“Of course!”
Nick took off his shirt and turned his back to us. I caught my breath. This man was handsome. I may have swooned for a few seconds though not in the way that I did when I looked into Wesley’s eyes on my first day of class.
