Thunderstorm

By J. M. Schroder

What if you found out you were the granddaughter of the first woman, no not Eve, but Lilith? After 150 years Dika Edens, the oldest of 4 girls each destined to live forever finds out that very thing. She is not sure if it is a curse or a gift from the Gods. All she knows is the man that has informed her of this has way too much guilt on his shoulders regarding her and her... past. Chrome is her Guardian but that does not mean he can protect her from everything. He should be the first one to know that - since he is the one telling her that she must save the world.

My name is Dika, I am an American born Hungarian, Polish, Spanish Gypsy with a little bit of something special, born right here in the green state of Oregon, home of the Beavers. That history would be changed in a matter of a few words spoken from the man that has been haunting my dreams. My sisters and I need to save the world and if we don't the Universe will cease to exist as we know it.

My name is Chrome Jai, Dragon Guardian to Dika Edens, created to protect her from the evils of the first human woman mother of mankind. I will protect her as she fights to save the humans, but her first assignment will be to make it through the first 48 hours and find her Aunt and her Grandmother.
We will go together to hell and back just to fix the mess of the Gods and man.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J. M. Schroder
• Release date: Nov 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301832972

J. M. Schroder

I am working on my first novel and an introductory Novella. I am the mother of three beautiful children, the wife of the most understanding and wonderful man. I am a full time court-reporting student.

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Thunderstorm

A Daughter’s of Eden Novel

J. M. Schroder

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Daughters of Eden

Thunderstorm

A Daughter’s of Eden Novel

By: J.M. Schroder

Published by Eden Press at Smashwords

Edited by Laura Martinez

Cover by Shanina Conway

Copyright © 2012 J.M. Schroder

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 9781301832972

DEDICATION

Without my husband I would never have been able to do this, and to my children who have been somewhat patient with me through this endeavor.

I love my street team, you are the best. I know that without you I would be alone and bored. Also, I appreciate all the help you give me in getting the pics and promotions out there.

Jeannie Christo my twin I love you so much, Becki Baker-Darling my bestie always, Cheree Crump you are awesome with your book trailers and buttons, Mandy Miller– music nerds must stick together, Lisa Markson thanks so much for all the help with blogging and blog tours, and Laura Martinez thanks for stepping up and helping me with the editing. Debbie Brown - Mommy I love you

Last but not least my girls, Teresa McKinnon, Natalya McAleer, Marie Cortez, Xtina (you know who you are), I love you guys.

What you thought you knew about the BIBLE

is about to CHANGE.

What if you found out you were the granddaughter of the first woman. No, not Eve, but Lilith? After 150 years Dika Edens, the oldest of 4 girls each destined to live forever finds out that very thing. She is not sure if it is a curse or a gift from the Gods. All she knows is the man that has informed her of this has way too much guilt on his shoulders regarding her and her past. Chrome is her Guardian, but that does not mean he can protect her from everything. He should be the first one to know that - since he is the one telling her that she must save the world.

My name is Dika, I am an American born Hungarian, Polish, Spanish Gypsy with a little bit of something special, born right here in the green state of Oregon, home of the Beavers. History would be changed in a matter of a few words spoken from the man that has been haunting my dreams. My sisters and I need to save the world, and if we don't, the Universe will cease to exist as we know it.

My name is Chrome Jai, Dragon Guardian to Dika Edens, created to protect her from the evils of the first human woman mother of mankind. I will protect her as she fights to save the humans, but her first assignment will be to make it through the first 48 hours and find her Aunt and her Grandmother.

We will go together to hell and back just to fix the mess of the Gods and mankind.

CHAPTER 1

I wake up in a start - at least I think I was a sleep, it felt all too real. Why do I keep having these dreams? I know in my mind that I am having a nightmare. Then it suddenly stops and changes from a nightmare into the most peaceful and calming dream; one where a warm and inviting man is caressing and whispering to me - making all the bad memories disappear. I know I could feel him, I know I do; it can’t be my imagination, I feel like I am going crazy. But it really doesn’t feel like I am sleeping. Maybe, in the beginning, when the nightmares began but not at the end - it was all too real.

I feel his breath on my neck, his hands on my skin, and the taste of him on my tongue. I hear him in my ear. I feel the warmth of his body surrounding me. I can smell the scent of his skin in the air, on me, and in my bed. But how can this be? I look around but there is nothing, there is no one. I am lying alone in my bed, the window is still shut, and the curtains are still pulled. I look to the door, the lock is still latched, and nothing has been disturbed. Did I really think that stupid lock would keep the nightmare from entering my dreams? I knew it would never keep him away. I hate the nightmares, but I would never give up a single one of them, if it meant losing the comfort I get from him along with the dreams that follow the nightmare.

Why do these dreams seem so real? Are they real? If they aren’t real, then why do I have them? What are they? Why do they exist and why do they make me feel like I am going crazy?

My name is Dika; I am an American-born Gypsy of Hungarian, Polish and Spanish descent, with a little bit of something special. I was born right here in the green state of Oregon, what’s known as the home of the Beavers.

I know what you’re thinking, what does that mean? Nothing, really, it’s just my heritage. I am the oldest of 8, 3 sisters and 4 brothers.

My sisters and I live out in the middle of nowhere out in the woods, between no place and nothing, in the tiny little town of Mulino. We live in the most beautiful A-frame house right in the center of 100 acres. The property has been in our family for over two hundred years and the house was built not much long after that. We have all the modern amenities including indoor plumbing, hot running water, satellite, and most all the modern conveniences you could want.

My sisters and I work from home in various ways. I am an online paralegal, Aishe works as an online medical biller, and Drina is the family fashionista and runs an online vintage store. Lala, well, she works at whatever she fancies that day.

We have lived in Oregon all our lives, all over the place but we always end up back here in Mulino. Mulino is a quiet little sleepy town with one convenience store slash gas station, a small private airport that houses a restaurant, and one really small grade school. No one pays attention or asks questions about little quirks they might notice, if they even take the time to notice. Non-nosey people make our lives a lot easier, because we do have a lot of quirks that we do not want people to pick up on. Some quirks you would notice right away, and others you would not pick up on right away, unless you knew us for a while and paid attention, or if you looked close enough at our unique features for that matter and the fact that we do not age. Thank goodness people in the 21st century are too busy in their own lives and have become advanced enough to have plastic surgery, which really works in our favor and it gives us longer stretches in one place which makes it nice.

Me, I am a very young looking 150 years old, while my sisters Aishe is 136, Drina is 111, and lovely little Lala is 63. I know, you are asking how. Well we actually do not know how, but it runs in the family, and there are many stories but I don’t know which ones to believe. My great, great, great, great (you get it - very great) grandmother is over 5000 years old if not older, we’re not even sure of her true age. You know the old saying do not ever ask a woman her age, well we don’t. We are not really certain if we actually die by natural causes; unnatural causes yes, mostly self-inflicted from what I am told, but natural - no. No woman in our direct line born by a female of our direct line has ever died of natural causes. Also, we do not physically age or look as though we are a day over 30.

Unfortunately, the males in our direct line do age and they do die, like all other natural borne humans, so all of my brothers have since passed.

I believe in God and Jesus. Good you say. Well I do, but also I believe there is more than just one God, I believe there are many Gods and Goddesses, some of whom I have met and many I haven’t. I believe in all myths of man, or at least parts of them, because every myth is based on truth in some form or another. I believe that each culture has their own God and it is a true God and even though three cultures call their God by a different name, it is actually the same God and that God loves each one of its followers as if they were their own children born to them.

I believe in and have also met spirits, demons, sprites, fairies, faeries, (yes there is a difference), elves, shape-shifters, vampires and that there is a heaven and hell. No, I am not a vampire, even though I am long-lived and I am also not any of which I have named. I am a special gypsy or so I’ve been told. I respect each and every God and Goddess in their own right and for my own reasons.

I have been having these dreams for the last couple of years, and they always start out as a nightmare and end in this most comforting and calming dream involving this person - this man. Actually, I am not at all sure it is a man. All I know is what I feel, and I am almost positive it is a man. Since I was young I have felt the presence of him, but never before has he entered into my dreams. When I was small and as I grew into a woman, it was just a feeling that I had that I was being protected and watched over; a comforting feeling. But after an incident a few years ago it has changed; it has gone from just being protective, to being protective and entering my nightmares and changing them to peaceful dreams and comforting me. It also seems like it’s trying to make me forget the bad memories and feelings by replacing them with the most wonderful feelings and memories.

I do not know what this man looks like, but I know the scent of him; it is like the scent that appears in the air when a thunderstorm is coming or just after a spring thunderstorm, it is a fresh and earthy scent. I can feel the electrical energy in the air with every dream. I feel beautiful, but at the same time I feel frustrated by it all but also very loved.

I have never truly enjoyed being loved by a human man. I could not give my heart to any, and I could not love any man completely for the one very big reason that they would die. I tried to fall in love once in my teens - at least I thought I had, and yes, it was a very long time ago. A time when sex before marriage was unacceptable, so I got married, so as not be ridiculed and I could have sex like any normal woman.

But in the end it got very complicated and I had to fake a serious illness and my own death when the signs of aging should have set in. He was showing signs of age and I wasn’t. That was not a good thing in that time period they would have tried me for witchery and I would have then been burned at the stake, I think I would die from that or at least suffer from some unimaginable pain. Science was not what it is now so when I faked the illness and my death, they could not detect my very slow heart beat and my faint breath.

After the funeral, my mother snuck into the funeral home and removed me from my casket before it could be buried and replaced me with some unfortunate homeless person who had no family and whom no one would have buried or even missed.

I decided I would never fall in love again. I could not do that again. It ripped my heart from my chest and now I just keep the rock that it was replaced with there. Ok, that’s a slight exaggeration! It was not literally ripped from my chest but it felt like it was, after watching how devastated my husband was during the illness and then at my death. My heart broke again when he fell in love and I watched him remarry not two months after my death. That was to be expected of any man in 1892. I do not want to go through that ever again.

By no means am I saying that I have not dated or had relationships or had sex. I am not a Nun. I can’t date any one person for long because I don’t want to risk them noticing that I don’t age, but most of all, I will not risk my heart again. I can’t watch someone I love break into pieces because they think I die and with science today, it would be next to impossible. So the only other way would be to stage an accident or disappearance. The problem with that is the first people always suspected by the authorities in disappearances or accidents is your family and loved ones. I wouldn’t be able to stand that, not to mention the risk of my sisters and I being found out. So I date and take care of myself when needed.

I have not decided if being immortal is some sort of a curse or a gift. I have seen women in our family live decades with men as they watch them age and die. They tell a few select men their secret about themselves and they move all around the world with that man they have chosen so that they can stay with them until they die. Some do that over and over again, until they cannot handle it anymore and then they go into a stasis. A stasis is a deep sleep or something comparable to a coma. They can remain in that stasis from 2 weeks to 20 years or longer. Most do not wake up for ten to twenty years. A stasis is a way of healing the heart, mind and body.

I like to go and have fun, so I haven’t and hopefully never will enter into that stasis. I try to just date casually and if I find someone I get along with and is fun, I will date them longer but at the most only for 6 to 9 month. When it is time to break up, I pretend like I am some kind of psycho and they break it off with me. It makes it easier so they will just be over me and not try the let’s get back together thing, or the stalking thing, that humans like to do, that is never fun. But casual relationships are always the best. There is a part of me that wishes I could find love in some ways, it would be nice waking up to the same person for eternity, but not even the long-living faeries or fairies out-live us and vamps are just not to my liking – too bloodthirsty, you know and they are kind of cold and a little destructive.

Slowly, I decide to get out of bed and get dressed for the day and I make my way downstairs to see what my sisters are up too. Each of them should be up by now or at least I hope they are. They are my best friends and the only ones that I can depend on. They are the only ones that I can be myself around but I also need to find time to be alone.

Aishe, who is sitting at her computer tapping away entering all those codes I could and would never understand, is a classic beauty without doing a thing, with her Spanish heritage coming through beautifully in her. Her skin is a glorious bronze and matches her beautiful curly honey hair; it has a gleam and luster I can never get with mine. She does not have to apply any makeup to her perfect complexion and she barely runs her fingers though her hair. Her eyes are just one more thing to be jealous of. They are milk chocolate with flakes of 24k gold in them, at least you would swear to that if you were staring into them. That is, if you could get past looking at her rosebud lips that are the color of the pinkest rose. Yes, I am jealous - just a little bit. She is quiet, calm and always composed. She knows exactly what to say and when to say it so that she never upsets anyone. She is a perfect size 6 not too big, not too small. At 5’8" she could be a model in today’s society, but that is one profession we can’t do because having photos or videos of us is impossible; well not impossible, we can be photographed but it is a very bad idea.

Drina, who is sitting at her computer in her little vintage rockabilly dress is lounging on the couch probably watching her money roll in on her online store, so adorable with her fire red locks and lips to match, porcelain skin, crystal blue eyes and as dainty as can be - just a mere 4’11. I think she would probably swim in her size 3 clothing if they were not taken in at the waist, but she has no option to get a smaller size and sometimes has to get a larger size because of her curves, her perfect hourglass figure, full double D chest, narrow 23 inch waist, and full hips. No woman should have so much on top and be so tiny everywhere else. She is always in a pair of 50s or 60s style stilettos pumps so that she can reach a whopping 5’4. Oh, and her personality is just as fiery as her hair. But the men still chase and drool after her. Yet another one of my sisters that I am jealous of, even if it is only because of her take no shit or prisoners attitude. Her looks I love, but I would not want to be quite that much of a pinup girl - just saying.

And then there is Lala, she is sitting on the computer at the breakfast bar - hopefully working, but no doubt surfing the net or posting some silly post on Facebook. She could make millions on there if they actually paid her to leave crazy phrases and pictures. Lala is just what you would think Lala would be just by seeing or hearing her name. Cute, petite, little sun-streaked blonde, 5’3" - looks like she has spent her entire life on the beach or in the waves. She has a speckling of freckles across her perfect little nose; skin the color of caramel, a total boy figure and a very go-with-the-flow attitude. Her hair reaches the top of her waist, but not many people would ever know that because she always has it pulled up into a ponytail. And yes - I am jealous of her too; I wish I had at least one trait of each one of my sisters.

And then there is me, average me. Dark straight hair, medium to light skin color I am told, and hazel eyes. I am 5’1" barely; I have colorless lips unless I put on makeup. I am not full-figured, like Drina; I am not tall and athletic, like Aishe and not perfectly svelte, like Lala. Don’t get me wrong. I am not ugly; I am just not a knock-out like my sisters or my mother. I am just plain, average me. But I make up for it with my discipline, determination and attention to detail or as my sisters put it, with my OCD.

CHAPTER 2

Dika is beautiful. I have guarded and protected her since the day she was born. She has never seen me; I am her guardian. All the Daughters have Guardians and we were created to protect them and their line. They are the Daughters of Eden, the living descendants of Lilith.

Most people know the story of Adam and Eve. They know of Eve being seduced by the serpent; of the lie he told her, the first lie, and of her taking the fruit that the serpent offered her and how she convinced her husband to