Page 243 of Caelum

“Anyone else feel like they’re in aNational Treasuremovie?” Reed groused, but I ignored him even though the shuffling of feet behind me told me that the others were in a semblance of agreement.

“I think you should start from the beginning,” I whispered, staring straight into Bartlett’s eyes and not letting him hedge on this, not letting him shift focus.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” he intoned, his lips gently curving as he made the mocking statement. One I’d heard so many times over the years in Bible study back at the compound; one that resonated with me on a different level because of what he wassaying.

“Wait,” I whispered, “You are the first of everything…” Shaking my head, I continued, “No. It can’t be.”

“Can’t be what?” Reed demanded, and he stormed over to me, coming to hold me as Bartlett held Avalina. Having him at my back was a welcome sensation, and it filled me with strength.

Bartlett tipped his head to the side as he cast a glance at the men in the room, then focused back on me. “Eve came first, not Adam,” he said matter-of-factly. “She was not born of my bone, but she was the life giver in more ways than she just helped bear the next generations.”

My throat felt thick. “Why are you telling us this?” I’d asked him to explain, but what he was saying made no sense.

“So, you understand, of course.” He pursed his lips. “I sensed you before. Sensed you when I was in the States a few months ago.” He laughed a little. “There are so few of us, and even though it puts us at risk of coming under Caelum’s umbrella, I had to help you.”

“What do you mean? You’re not working with Caelum?” Reed asked, tone insistent, his arms bunching as tension filled him. His Hell Hound was in full force at the moment, and while I could have soothed him, all my focus was on what Bartlett was telling me. What he wasn’t saying even though he was talking, spilling words that were couched in shadows when I needed the spotlight on the truth.

“No.” Avalina’s laugh was a small tinkle. “Though Nicholas is one of our sons.”

I could feel my mates’ bewilderment as Avalina spoke of the principal of Caelum.

“If you’re related, then why don’t you work with Caelum?” I queried.

“Because our place is not to interfere with the lives of the many,” Bartlett intoned, and though he came across as a pompous jerk, I knew they were words he’d had to utter often and each time had pained him.

Those shadows were back. In his eyes. In his heart. I sensed them and hurt with him at their presence.

“But Nicholas can?” Eren asked, and he was the first of my men to take a seat on the sofa once more. I wasn’t surprised. Eren was the calmest of us all, the least hotheaded. Within minutes of him taking a seat, the others joined him, sitting down for story time with the ‘Elders.’

Unlike the others, I didn’t. I remained standing. I wasn’t sure why I needed to, just knew that if I was standing, it would be easier to run…

“Nicholas shouldn’t, but there are many things we shouldn’t do and yet we do.” Avalina shrugged. “I understand his ethos. It is one I wish I could involve myself in, but we don’t. We can’t. Bartlett contacting Merinda wasan issue, but I understood why. We come acrossJannahonce in a blue moon.”

“Jannah?” I repeated, frowning at the word, one that was completely new to me.

Bartlett smiled. “What you and I are.” He waved a hand that encompassed the men and murmured, “They aremajnun.They are the flowers from our seeds.Jannahare God’s children themselves—eight creatures housed in one soul.”

My mouth felt so dry that it hurt to lick my lips. “God’s children?” I squeaked.

He nodded. “When Eve was born, Adam was God’s gift to her. She had a world to settle,” he said, squeezing his wife’s arm, “a world to populate. She couldn’t do that alone, and so Adam was born.”

“Why do you speak in the third person?” Reed asked, his voice low.

“Because those people died a long time ago. The people standing here today are Avalina and Bartlett. We’ve lived nine lives, led nine different incarnations. Adam and Eve were the first, but these are our last.”

“What do you mean?” Eren questioned, sitting up and making the leather Chesterfield beneath him creak as he did so.

“This was our last chance. When we die this time, we will die for good.”

There was no sadness in Bartlett’s tone, not even resignation. If anything, I believed I heard excitement, and I supposed that made sense.

God only knew—literally—how long this man and woman had lived, and I could only imagine how tired they were.

“I think you should begin at the beginning,” Frazer suggested, his tone commanding but polite. I hadn’t heard him get up, but when I felt his hand on my elbow, I didn’t pull away.

“Will you sit, Eve?” Bartlett asked, his eyes and attention wholly on me. “We mean you no harm. If anything, we have answers for you.”

Because I sensed the truth in him, I allowed Frazer to tug me onto his lap. Unlike Stefan, he didn’t cop a feel, as Samuel called it, but he did hold me tight in his grasp. That was good, though, because I felt as though I were on the brink of shattering into a thousand pieces and only he and the rest of my mates were the glue that could keep me together.

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