Angel Teeth Archives, Book Two: Circles Unbroken

By Brandy Lee Hunter

My original motto of, 'live and let live,' took a significant hit from the loss of my love, Lucas. Although being an Evol comes with a growing dislike for humans, his death took me there quicker. When I had stopped the Begetter outside the Burj Khalifa building at my friends' Max and Sonja's wedding, the releasing of his memories seemed to elimi

• Language: English
• Publisher: Individual
• Release date: Apr 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869329172

Brandy Lee Hunter

Born in New Hampshire, Brandy traveled across the United States to San Diego, Ca with her familyfamily as a young child. She attended college for a year before joining the United States Air Force and spent much of her career as a surgical medic and then as a first sergeant. A war veteran, she deployed nine times to multiple countries during her twenty-two years of service while also completing two degrees. After retiring, Brandy began to explore her creative side through painting and writing.The author of Angel Teeth Archives series.

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ANGEL TEETH ARCHIVES

Book Two: Circles Unbroken

Brandy Lee Hunter

Copyright © 2024 by Brandy Lee Hunter

Cover design by www.cakamuradesigns.com

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

All characters in this publication are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead (or undead), is purely coincidental.

Dedicated to those who have been defiled by the horrendous atrocities of war, poverty,

And or oppression. For some, there has only been pain and degradation, from brutal beginning to bitter end. Much of human history has lacked the basic principles of what it means to be humane.

It is past time we earn our self-imposed title of ‘superior intelligent being.’

If we can imagine better worlds, then we can certainly do better with the world we have now.

Contents

Chapter 1 - Lucas

Chapter 2 - Seth

Chapter 3 - On Our Way

Chapter 4 - The Begetter

Chapter 5 - How Does One Apologize to a Rock?

Chapter 6 - It’s all About the Teeth

Chapter 7 - I See You

Chapter 8 - Blood, Lavender and Luna

Chapter 9 - Evol Nation?

Chapter 10 - Living the Dream

Chapter 11 - The Other Side

Chapter 12 - Gratitude

Chapter 13 - Spunket Mic Drop!

Chapter 14 - Leave Them to Die

Chapter 15 - Burning Down the House

Chapter 16 - The Silent Fuck You

Chapter 17 - A Window in Time

Chapter 18 - Pulling Life Through a Needle

Chapter 19 - Michael’s Muse

Chapter 20 - Home

Chapter 21 - Three Down, One to Go

Chapter 22 - The Passage

Chapter 23 - Solara

Chapter 24 - The Choice

Chapter 25 - As it Ends, so it Begins

Chapter 1

Lucas

Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

—William Shakespeare

Blood ebbed from a thousand cuts. Lucas was helpless as he sat on the dining room chair feeling his life slip away. I witnessed it happen through the Begetter’s memories that were tucked in the back of my mind. This scene was one of the many reasons I had stopped my own death. The Begetter attacked Lucas. The memory of this moment was so clear I could feel his pain, smell his blood, and I ached with the desperation to survive that oozed from Lucas.

That devastating event took place the day before Elijah, Seth, and I, were flying to Lucas’s home for our visit. He was in his backyard playing with his dogs when a blurry figure appeared to him. Just beyond the tree line stood a being Lucas had never seen before and, in a flash, the Begetter was somehow face to face with him. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t fight back. No idea what was happening or why. Lucas was under the Begetter’s control.

He was forced to walk toward the dining room where the Begetter shoved the table aside with a wave of his hand and then snapped his fingers once. Lucas sat on the chair as a whole-body pain swallowed him. No words were spoken. No explanation given. His flesh was suddenly peeled open all over his body and there was nothing he could do about it. The spell cast upon him refused his ability to heal. Designed specifically for Lucas to ensure his wounds remained gaped. Blood immediately soaked through his clothes and streamed down onto the floor. My love was instantly exsanguinated. That’s as far as I saw. The Begetter left Lucas to die. Once the Begetter walked out, I saw no more of how Lucas eventually survived what he endured. That’s why I still believed he was dead after the Begetter’s secret memories had been unlocked in my brain, until the day he reappeared at my home.

Lucas later explained that after the Begetter had disappeared, he began to slip into death quickly. His body flayed in countless places, he could only watch as a pond of blood began to grow around him. During the last few of his heartbeats an image of himself emerged from the shadows. It was his soul.

He put his hand atop Lucas’s head and showed him future events he could not ignore. One of them was of my death. Not from the suicide I had attempted but of me and the Begetter in an epic struggle. A struggle I apparently lost. It broke his heart in two. Why would his soul show him such a thing? Why torture him further with that sight? He stopped fighting the urge to live.

There was another big revelation during that battle; the Begetter was attempting to resurface the Earth. Wipe out everything and all existence but what was Lucas to do about it in his present condition? He hovered near death and had none of my abilities to escape it. His soul leaned down and whispered that if Lucas allowed it, he would take him somewhere better. Lucas thought he meant Heaven because he was on his very last heartbeat by then. He relented and told his soul to do what needed to be done.

Lucas closed his eyes as his soul wrapped itself around him.

When he opened them again, he was in a shack. A home of some kind but whose he didn’t know. He figured he must be in Heaven. He must have died because his body was healing, and his pain had faded. He got up off the floor and slowly opened the door of the shack to find that he was in the middle of a village. He marveled at the lavender skies above and the cleanliness of the air. It had to be Heaven.

About a dozen villagers came out of their shops or homes and began to swarm around him. Shaking his hand, patting him on the back and welcoming him, ‘home.’ Lucas was confused because he imagined when he died, he would know the people around him. He assumed he would get to see his parents and siblings again. But he didn’t recognize anyone. It wasn’t long before those people realized he had no idea where he was. One villager introduced himself as Silex. He seemed to know Lucas and even hugged him. Lucas just stood there, not hugging back.

This is unbelievable you’re here! How do you feel? Where have you been? Silex excitedly said.

"Umm, and where am I? Where is here?" Lucas asked.

Your home! This is so crazy. Hey, do you know Emma? Is she with you? Silex asked as he looked past Lucas into the shack, searching for me.

What? Emma? No, she isn’t with me. How do you know Emma? Lucas paused, he wasn’t understanding the language very well. How do I get back home? You know, Earth!?

"Well, first of all, you can’t produce Shimmer the way you are at the moment. So, you won’t be going anywhere for a while. And second, you are on Earth. We’ll talk with the elders later and figure this out," Silex explained.

Lucas’s mind was blown. Adding to the difficulties was the language barrier. He just barely understood Silex. His Evol brain was doing its best to translate but it was taking much longer than usual. Remember, our brains are stellar with languages, even ancient ones? But where Lucas was, was beyond the term ancient. The Evol brain works much like a Rubik’s Cube. The more the language is spoken, the quicker the problem of its ‘foreignness’ is solved. While gathering his bearings and letting his brain do its work, Lucas looked around and marveled. It felt like … Heaven, or at least how he had always imagined Heaven to be. But clearly, he had landed somewhere else. The people here knew who I was and knew him. What the hell was going on?

He went back inside the home and tried to find anything familiar or any belonging of his, a clue of some kind. The space was comfortable to him. It was warm, cozy, and happened to be a place he would’ve easily picked for himself. Maybe this is my house, he thought. As he made his way around, he found the bathroom. There was indoor plumbing, he was very thankful for that. A large hard clay vase-looking thing that was to him a toilet and yes, there were pipes leading out. A sewer system of sorts. A large round copper bathtub, sink, and shelves; no shower. The kitchen had a large woodburning stove and an amazing trough-style copper sink. Although the cabin was covered in cobwebs and dust it strangely felt like he’d been living there all his life.

That night, villagers brought him food, clothing, and supplies. He felt like a refugee but in reality, he was just returning home. No electricity but there were torches and candles everywhere. He didn’t quite understand if he was in the past of human history or on another planet altogether. Regardless of what Silex told him, he still thought maybe he was on an unnamed planet. The closest he could come to describing it was like old world Roman or Greek because of the extraordinary mechanical technology like plumbing, water wells, etc. No paved streets but very organized and structured for a village atmosphere. Thatched rooves, stucco or mud-like exteriors, and all the windows were stained glass. As he inspected closer, he saw the panes weren’t actual glass but extremely thin shards of a type of rock, something resembling clear shale.

Much like Silex, the people in the village had long hair of varying colors, sharp teeth like mine, and light golden eyes. Lucas had filed down his teeth centuries ago, so he was the one out of place now. Think of what I went through being the only one with vampire-like teeth, then reverse it. The difference was those people around him didn’t treat him like a freak for not having predator teeth as they had. And they may have had a village structure similar to ancient Greece but their clothes and general appearance was more in line with Vikings or how scholars describe residents in old world Germania. A healthy mix of barbarian and brilliance. Villager heights ranged from five to seven feet, and most were on the much taller side above six, even the women. They had multiple skin tones, yet still all looked similar. It was like a puzzle. When separate the pieces are different but once you put it together it completes a cohesive picture. They were the same species but what species he couldn’t say. And they were very intrigued by him. He got waved at a lot by random people as he and Silex made their way to the elder meeting house. He was glad his brain had finally got a handle on the language. It was second nature already, just that quickly. Yeah, Evol DNA kicks ass. Further to that point, Lucas discovered that Evols had advancements these new people did not, like bionic eyesight and hearing.

Once inside the meeting house, the elders enthusiastically greeted him as they all took a seat at the long impressive wooden table adorned with breathtaking carvings and jewels. They informed him, officially, that he was a Lost One—as am I. Furthermore, he was in the village, Kulkiwhy [Kul-kee-why], on a world called Gabera, [Ga-bur-a]. Otherwise known as Earth. A Lost One, in simplest terms, is a Gaberian. They are the residents of that world. Lucas and I each had a person from Gabera, from a different time, inside us. It was not uncommon for some Lost Ones, or what the elders called lost Gaberians, to find their way home from time to time. And the shack Lucas had landed in was not his original home. Since he had ended up in it then that probably meant it was a family home. As it was vacant the elders gave it to him for as long as he wanted. They continued on by telling him that some Lost Ones brought back stories of the future world. The world we know now. Most Lost Ones only found their home by way of what they thought of as dreams.

That’s what was happening to me.

When you’re in what you think is a dream, your perception is your reality. Meaning, because I was convinced I was dreaming, I was unable to interact with any of the villagers. If I believed I couldn’t hear them or talk to them, then that’s what happened. If I believed it wasn’t real, then that’s what it was, to me. The people of the lavender skies recognized Lost Ones on sight even though their physical bodies looked changed. They knew it the moment they saw Lucas and me, that we were Lost Ones. How? Couldn’t tell you. I never saw it in Lucas and if there were others like us out there, I hadn’t run into them and couldn’t even tell you if I had.

Lucas wasn’t dreaming. True, he had thought he was dying and going to Heaven, but the point is, he was fully aware that he was awake. He was one of the rare few to make it home not in a dream-like state.

Lucas attempted to explain what had brought him to the village. He described the blurry being that attacked him. He didn’t know its name, nor that its nickname was the Begetter and without a better description, the elders had no idea what he had tangled with. Yet, he warned them of the vision he was given. That the being who attacked him was planning on destroying Earth in a matter of a hundred years or less. More importantly, he wanted to get back to the present because that’s where I was, and I was going to die as well.

The elders didn’t seem too concerned with his information. Maybe in their minds they felt it was in the future and wouldn’t affect their plane of existence. So he was was pretty much stuck until he could figure out how to leave. Exhausted and overwhelmed he decided to take a break. He found his way back to his little home and lay down on the bed, sleeping soundly for hours.

He woke early the next morning feeling incredible and went to meet Silex to take a long walk around the village. Lucas was impressed by how friendly everyone was. It occurred to him that although they could see the Lost One within him, they didn’t know the entity personally. They just knew it was there and that was all they needed to embrace him as one of their own.

As they left the village, he saw small mice running through the tall grass in front of them. At least he thought they were mice. They had much longer fur and slender ears. Sort of like if a bunny and a mouse had a tiny baby. Once they approached the top of a hill, he could view the whole village below them. He turned slightly to see forest land in the distance and that’s where he spotted a herd of hooved animals. Graceful, beautiful and tall creatures reminiscent of an elk and antelope combined. Great copper horns adorned their heads that spiraled to the sky, around four feet in length. They were dark gray with highlights of copper all over their bodies in intricate patterns. Each one different.

Silex told him they were called Ossprigs. They were the untouchables. No one ever fed on them, mainly due to the fact they didn’t heed the siren call, the signal we put out enticing animals to us for feeding. They were also one of the oldest hooved animals known to exist, so the villagers revered them. While still standing on the green knoll Lucas left Silex and moved to see what was on the other side of the valley. He looked down and gazed at what appeared to be a golden lake. The water sparkled, as if filled with diamonds and jewels. He saw an old woman, a black wolf, and me, down by the water. Excitedly, he waved his arms, calling my name. I looked in his direction, but it seemed I didn’t recognize him. Before he knew it, the old woman and I vanished. The black wolf bolted from the shore and ran up the hill to him.

That was the ‘dream’ I’d had after finding a pool of Lucas’s blood that day at his house. The dream that transported me from America to Scotland in the blink of an eye. The night I went missing and Seth was searching for me. I remember that dream and seeing a man on the knoll. If I hadn’t told myself it wasn’t real, then perhaps I could’ve stayed. I could’ve been with Lucas the whole time. But how could I have known?

At this point in Lucas’s journey, if you recall, I was in my Scottish home with my new black eyes, cocooned in miserable sadness and believing Lucas dead. My original motto of, ‘live and let live,’ had taken a significant hit from his loss. Although being an Evol comes with a growing dislike for humans his death took me there quicker. When I had stopped the Begetter outside the Burj Khalifa building at my friends’ Max and Sonya’s wedding, the releasing of his memories seemed to eliminate my previous sentiments altogether. But we can get to more of that later …

Lucas stared at the motionless lake for some time until Silex joined him and asked what he was looking at. In a heartbroken tone he replied, Nothing. He wasn’t sure what to do next. Should he even try to leave? Was it worth it? Maybe that was just how life was going to be.

The giant wolf followed him home that day. At first, he thought the animal trailed him because of the natural pull animals had to him. Lucas had a magnetism when it came to animals of every kind so it wasn’t too long before he felt a connection to the wolf. Something about the animal felt like me. Even smelled a little like me.

Silex and the villagers encouraged Lucas to relax and begin his new life among them. They fully accepted him and were excited to integrate him into their fold. They reassured him everything would work out as it was meant to. But Lucas couldn’t let it go. He couldn’t just give up. The wolf—my wolf as he came to think of it, was what kept triggering his need to be somewhere else. It was a constant reminder that I was in the future, about to die by the hand of a blurry being.

Weeks became months, and those became years, and although Lucas focused on trying to get back to me, each idea failed. To keep himself busy he fixed up the shack into a very livable and slightly larger cabin home or cottage. He became close with the villagers, with Silex and his family, and with my wolf, which in Lucas fashion he simply named, Wolf. Anytime I appeared in one of my ‘dreams’ he would drop what he was doing so he could follow me. He later said that was the most frustrating and infuriating position to be in. I was right there but we couldn’t speak or touch. He told me my image was also distorted, hazy and he could never get a clear view of my eyes. I was there but I wasn’t.

My wolf and the old woman of the lake were the only ones who could seemingly interact with me. Lucas spoke to her as much as possible hoping to find the trick she was using so he could employ it too. She finally told him her secret. She was a soul sender. The boatman of the underworld. She ferried souls from where they didn’t belong to where they did. I was not a soul. I was physically there, even though I didn’t know it, but for that reason I wasn’t allowed to stay. Because I was inbetween worlds was why she could deal with me and touch my hand.

One morning, Lucas woke up in a cold sweat. A detail about the future he was shown had escaped him. He had been so focused on the resurfacing and my death he had completely blindsided the rest. The being that attacked him was also going to kill Seth. Seth, my Gifter and our friend, an almost intolerably positive man with equally intolerable good looks. If his timeline was correct it was going to happen soon too. Lucas told Silex and his brother, Ottman, about Seth’s impending doom. He asked for their help. If Lucas couldn’t leave, then maybe one of them could try. They could warn Seth. While there they could tell Seth to warn me too.

Silex and Ottman were brothers, however, they looked and acted very differently. They were both around six feet tall and that’s where their similarities ended. Silex looked much like their mother. Very pale skin with blond hair streaked with copper highlights. Charismatic and a jokester, he’d never met a stranger. The older of the two, but you would never guess it. His supple skin and childlike glow made him appear much younger. Ottman, on the other hand, got his looks from their father. Long dark hair also streaked with white and copper but if you were to compare him with people on our Earth, he would be Native American. Lean, toned, bronze skin, and a warrior stance. Ottman was the more analytical of the two brothers. A think-first-act-second type of person. He was gentle, funny, and caring, but there was a side to him you could sense warning you to be cautious. When push came to shove, he wasn’t going to lose, ever.

The brothers sat Lucas down to discuss the properties of Shimmer with him. Shimmer, the substance that bleeds through my skin and resides inside my fangs, was used as a slingshot in theory. Gaberians produced it naturally and typically, it was utilized to go back in time like a flying ointment, then come around forward to where you started. Warning Seth would mean reversing the slingshot. That had never been tried before. There was never a need to jump forward into the future so Silex and Ottman thought it would be best if they attempted to jump space together. They could slingshot each other to create an anchor, like a safety net.

Lucas pointed out on a map the general location of where Seth lived. Of course, that place didn’t exist on the map they were looking at but at least it gave a direction. He told them the approximate year he thought present day Earth would be in and just … hoped it would work out. The elders were excited about the possibility of making contact with future beings but also nervous. From the descriptions the Lost Ones who had returned had given, the beings called humans did not seem like nice people —I whole-heartedly agree with this assessment by the way. The elders worried for Silex and Ottman, as they should. Humans flip out over the slightest of changes or ‘new’ people.

The brothers stood together in the middle of a packed meeting room and vanished.

They arrived outside a man named Seth Amari’s house. Somewhere in Kentucky at the end of a long, curved road, where the houses were bungalows, seemingly bearing the brunt of the wide open sky. As I said, Seth was my Gifter, he found me when I was at my most dislocated worst and gave me Evol life. He was my friend and also Lucas’s best friend and he was about to get a big surprise. He was at home; having just gotten ready for a trip. He had made a spur of the moment decision to visit Dr. Max Harris in Jerusalem, his mentor and the keeper of the Evol archives. Just as a surprise. Something to do to get him out of the house and traveling again. He was jovial as he locked his door and walked down to the waiting cab, putting his bags in the trunk. He shut it and began to get into the passenger side when, off to the side of his house, two strange men appeared. Silex and Ottman.

They yelled out, Seth? in unison.

Upon seeing them just pop up out of nowhere, the cab driver freaked out and sped off with Seth’s bags still in his trunk. He almost ran Seth over in the process of escaping. Seth got up from the ground and waved his hands at the driver, yelling for him to stop, but the cab was long gone, leaving only burnt rubber and tire tracks behind. Silex and Ottman stood frozen and silent for a moment, mesmerized by seeing their first car.

Seth angrily stomped over to them. He demanded to know who they were and what the hell was going on, halting his anger long enough to realize he wasn’t talking to regular people. They most certainly weren’t from around these parts. Who the fuck are you guys? Where’d you even come from?

We were sent here by Lucas. He says a blurry weird guy is going to kill you soon. And he needs you to warn Emma too about that same guy, Silex explained.

Seth was having an issue understanding the odd man. He couldn’t for the life of him recognize the language. There were words he was able to pick out though, the name of his supposed dead best friend was a word he knew. LUCAS! You guys know Lucas? Where is he? He’s alive? Oh my God!! Seth exclaimed, losing his mind.

Before either of the men could respond, there he was, the Begetter.

Just eight feet from the three of them stood the blurry guy Lucas had been talking about for years. The immense power rolling off him seemed almost palpable and a sense of something being off. Something beyond any of their comprehension.

Is that him? The blurry guy? Silex asked Seth as he pointed at the Begetter.

Yup, that’s him. We’re fucked right now, Seth replied.

Quick as a flash, Ottman grabbed his brother’s shoulders and POOF, they were gone.

Silex and Ottman landed in the middle of the meeting room floor on Gabera, thrown into a pile atop one another. Lucas and the elders bent down to help them, which was when everyone suddenly backed up and let out a collective gasp. Beneath Silex and Ottman was something new. What was it they wondered? Although he was in the same basic form as they were, he was obviously a very different creature. It was Seth.

Chapter 2

Seth

Lucas looked at the brothers and angrily shouted, You brought him here?

They seemed to be just as shocked as he was. It wasn’t on purpose by any means. Seth did not look good and