667: Issue #7 Pt. 2 "The Seventh Son"

“They’re about an hour out. Should be here around ten or so.” Adam had joined me on the front porch as I scrawled away in my sketchbook.

“Any problems?” I didn’t look at him when I spoke, just kept drawing the portrait that had been stuck in my head for the past few days.

“None whatsoever. Naomi had mostly everything packed when they got there so it was mostly a pick up and go sort of thing.” Adam lit up a cigarette and lounged back on the porch swing.

“I like that necklace that you got her.” I had seen it around Violet’s neck and asked where she got it; I didn’t know that everyone was getting her gifts.

“Yeah, it just called to me. She’s our own little Sherlock Holmes.” Adam smirked as he puffed away.

“Would that make you Watson?” I asked a bit bitterly but still gave him a smile.

“That sounds like a reasonable deduction.” Adam laughed in return and relaxed into the cushions of the swing.

I was having a hard time with the idle chit chat, so I decided to go a little deeper.

“Did Violet talk to you about what was in that folder she had when we came back from New Orleans?” I asked casually. She said that she was going to go over it with everyone, but the topic had never come up.

“Nope. I didn’t even know she had a folder on her. Where did she get it from?” Adam asked casually as he finished his smoke.

“I have no idea. She came back from shopping with it, but said that she wanted to discuss it with everyone at once so she didn’t have to repeat herself.” I returned, finally finishing my sketch.

“She has to do that a lot and I think it annoys her. I don’t know why she hasn’t mentioned it to anyone else yet.” Adam shrugged as he smudged his smoke in a metal ashtray.

“Me either. She can be a bit secretive.” I had come to that conclusion here lately.

“She can be, but she has a hard time opening up to people.” Adam defended her.

“She doesn’t seem to have that problem with you.” Jealousy was starting to rear its ugly head.

“You have to remember that I have known her a little bit longer than the rest of you have.” Adam seemed like he was trying to ease my jealousy, but it wasn’t helping.

“You have. She told me that you two transformed together?” That had come up in conversation—once or twice.

“Something like that. We were both at her birthday party when the fog found us. I tried to save her from it, but I see now that that was probably futile. That fog would have gotten to us one way or another.” Adam lit up another cigarette.

He was there for her from the beginning, but I was something new and novel.

She had been all wrapped up in me until just a few days ago. Ever since she woke up the morning we went to the city, I noticed something had changed.

“Is she mad at me?” I asked, feeling a little childish.

“Not that I’m aware of. She has just been really busy compiling a list of all of us and trying to figure out what Apollyon meant by the ‘Seventh Son’. I think she is more worried about you than anything.” Adam’s words seemed truthful, but there was just a tinge of falsehood in his voice.

“You’re probably right.” I stared down at the portrait of Violet in my lap. It wasn’t the purple haired version that she sported so often, or the snowy-headed visage that she now hid from everyone…it was the gingered, freckled face of an Irish beauty that I loved so much.

“Are you excited to see Naomi?” Adam switched the conversation to something else.

“It’ll be nice to see her again. She seemed like a really genuine person when I met her at Brighid’s Dawn and I guess I need to thank her: if it hadn’t been for her I would have never found you guys.” I lightly penciled in a third eye on to the portrait even though the original Violet never had one.

“I like Naomi. She’s feisty and sort of a no-nonsense person. She put her life on the line to save Violet just like Violet had done for her. She’s definitely one of the good ones.” Adam nodded as he lounged back in the swing.

“One of the good ones…unlike Missy?” That was something else that Violet didn’t like to talk about.

“Yeah…Missy. That’s a touchy subject.” Adam got up and took a seat right next to me in a rocker.

“What happened exactly? She mentioned that her best friend turned on her, but she was hesitant about giving me any details.” I prodded for information.

“She was one of us, as I assume you already know, but her transformation took her over to the Dark Side thanks to her Angel boyfriend—or whatever he was. She was willing to sacrifice her best friend, her sister, just to please Jeremy. Violet flew all the way from Ireland to start a new life with this woman, and she just gave her up without a second thought.” Adam retold a story that I knew must have been tearing Violet up inside.

“That’s terrible. What a bitch.” I snorted, working on the fine details of my drawing.

“Yeah, she was definitely a bitch and her boyfriend was even more of a worthless waste of space…he killed my best friend.” Adam looked like he was starting to heat up just talking about it.

So that had been how Nate had passed—he was killed by an Angel.

“I’m so sorry, man. I can only imagine how you must feel. Violet said he was like a brother to you.” I attempted to comfort him, but I was sure it fell flat.

“Violet blamed herself for a while, but it wasn’t her fault. We underestimated the other side and now we are paying for it.”

Adam got up from the rocker as a rumbling of engines came up the winding front drive.

“Is that them?” I set my sketchbook down and rose from my rocking chair.

“Looks like the crossover to me.” Adam jumped to the front door, opened it and called in for the others.

I was glad that Violet was back, but I didn’t know if she would be any more well rested than she had been when she left.