Ascending the Veil Read Online Free Page A

him?”
    Balthazar lifts Marcus and carefully places him over his shoulder. He pulls Marcus’s blanket down, revealing the back of his neck and a faint, pink scar. He was implanted? Xander moves in closer, flashes of concern in his eyes. “When?”
    Balthazar’s lowers his voice as he rocks back and forth, side to side, calming the baby. “As soon as we got to the facility. Miriam and I did not have a chance to implant him before I was sent away by Michael. Hindsight, it is a blessing he wasn’t implanted with a Sondian Copula. Removal of a Sondian Copula takes a toll on the body. Removal from an infant could be life threatening.” Balthazar’s pauses and a shadow of misery falls over him. “Miriam and I, we were colleagues. When we first met, I had just instituted the fellowship. She was introduced to me by a ... trusted colleague.” Balthazar’s lips thin momentarily before he continues. “She agreed to go to Sonde with the rest of our growing team. Miriam was a brilliant geneticist and I was thrilled to have her with us.”
    Balthazar looks down and lightly rubs Marcus’s back. “We fell in love and secretly married in London on one of our return trips from Sonde. No one knew about us. She became pregnant and questions began to arise, especially from Michael Sanderson, then an executive board member. He wanted to know who the father was, if he was a Sondian or an average civilian. Miriam did not trust Michael or his reaction to our union if he discovered it. She told him that it was an average civilian and she didn’t plan on ever telling him.”
    Balthazar looks at Sebastian with saddened eyes, then back at me. “Michael had taken control of many of the proceedings in regards to the fellowship and on Sonde, Miriam and I both agreed that she should ask him if she could be sent back to London for a safe delivery of the baby. Michael told her that it wasn’t possible and that she would need to deliver on Sonde. Not wanting to stir the waters with Michael and the rest of the fellowship, I told Miriam that we would find a way to get her out of there soon, but that we should wait until the baby was born. The baby had a safe delivery and when Miriam sent word, I went back to Sonde. That is the day I discovered how Michael had taken over the fellowship and turned it into something I never could have imagine. I had planned to bring Miriam and Marcus back with me that day, but they stopped me.”
    Balthazar covers Marcus’s head with the blanket again and shifts him from his shoulder to his arms. I move closer to Balthazar, wanting to get a better look at Marcus. I try to ignore the feeling of Xander hovering close behind me, wanting to get a closer look at him as well. Balthazar whispers, “When I saw who you and Nate where chasing, Miriam in the woods and the bundle in her arms,” Balthazar pauses and lowers his head to kiss Marcus on the forehead, “I knew that she took the opportunity the intersection offered and traversed from Sonde to save herself and our son.”
    I can’t help myself, wondering if he is human. Sebastian answers my thought. “When we got here, we immediately ran tests on him. DNA samples, EKG, EEG, and every other test we could to rule out that he was…” Sebastian clears his throat, “alien due to the environment in which he was born. When we cleared him, Balthazar did not want to wait on implantation any longer. He wanted Marcus to be protected.”
    Balthazar looks at me. “He is a healthy, human boy thanks to you, Jesca.”
    Nick chimes in, “Just baked extra fast, huh Marcus?” Leave it to Nick. I hear him call out, “Ouch! What , babe? I’m just joking!”
    I hear Elisha chiding him in an audible whisper that it wasn’t the time.
    Balthazar takes it in stride. “Yes, he did develop in-utero differently than a normal human pregnancy. We figure it had to do with the environment and properties of Sonde.”
    I look up at Balthazar, rest my hand on his arm, and smile. “He is