Ascending the Veil Read Online Free Page B

beautiful , Balthazar.”
    Bal thazar looks at me thoughtfully. “He looks like Miriam.”
    I feel my heart clench and guilt burn within me. I couldn’t save her. “I’m sorry , Balthazar. If only I had gotten to her sooner…”
    He looks down at Marcus, then back up at me. His voice quivers, “You saved my son , Jesca. I will always be grateful for that.”
    Sebastian puts his hand on my shoulder. “Do you want to hold him , Jesca?”
    I look at Marcus and see that he has settled back into sleep. I shake my head slowly, “I don’t want to wake him.”
    Balthazar clears his throat and shifts him to the crook in his arms. “Oh, it takes a lot to wake up this kid during the day. Doesn’t it, Marcus? He is a night owl.”
    Jake comes to stand behind Siobhan and holds out a bottle of water. I take it from his hand. “Yeah, Siobhan and I have night duty with this little dude.”
    I’m greedy with the water bottle and drain the entire thing in seconds. Siobhan snickers, “Thirsty much?”
    I put the lid back on the empty bottle and before I realize what he is doing, Balthazar is placing Marcus in my arms and grabbing the bottle from me. I make sure his head is resting in the crook of my arm.
    I wince a little out of sympathy for the baby. “I don’t want to hurt his neck.” I smooth his blanket and tuck it under him with my other hand.
    Balthazar leans over and looks down at Marcus. “You won’t, he is tough like his second cousin.”
    That is right, he is my second cousin. Anna, my mother was Sebastian’s niece. I shake my head thinking about the complications of my life now, when only a year and a half ago, I was concerned about my work schedule interfering with my classes. Marcus lets out an embittered grunt and I intuitively hush him. “Shhhhh, little guy. It’s alright, I’ve got you.”
    Eyes still closed, Marcus’ face relaxes from the scowl, and stretches , arching his back out of my arms. I hold him tight, but give him the room he needs to stretch. He slowly settles back into the crook of my arm and releases an audible breath from his small parted lips. His every movement is a miracle in itself. The warm hand I know very well settles on the middle of my back. I pull my eyes from the baby’s and hone directly in on Xander’s. Diverting his eyes from mine, he looks down at Marcus and whispers, “Beautiful.”
    I look back down at Marcus to hide the heat rising under my skin from Xander’s nearing presence. “Girls are beautiful, boys are handsome.”
    I feel Xander’s breath graze my shoulder when he says in all seriousness, “I know. I was talking about you.”
    I pull away from Xander an inch or two and begin to sway back and forth, refocus on Marcus’s angelic face; distracting myself from how Xander’s making my pulse quicken.
    Marcus being a distraction works, but instead it stirs images that play out quickly like a movie reel, but in reverse.
     
    Baby Marcus lying in my arms with Nate hovering behind me in a lake.
    Stabbing Michael and diving off a cliff after Miriam and the bundle in her arms.
    Miriam plummeting into the lake with Marcus after being stabbed by Michael.
    Chasing Miriam and the bundle in her arms through the Aokigahara Forest.
    Nate and I holding each other in the SUV before entering the forest, telling me he loved me.
    The kiss Xander and I shared at the Kyoto safe house before the intersection.
    A man on a computer screen at the safe house. Adam something...Clairborne, Adam Claiborne!
    I remember now. He is a scientist. He spoke of black holes, white holes, the soulless wanting to draw us to them. He said whoever went into the black hole might very well be ripped apart, but Ezra and Nate made it. I don’t deserve to be standing here holding this baby while my father and Nate are God knows where. I look up at Sebastian and Balthazar. “We need to talk.”
    Siobhan must see the conversation going south real quick, because she moves in toward me and puts out her arms.