Read Online Catherine Spangler - [Sentinel 02] - Touched By Fire (v5.0) (html) by Unknown - Free Book Online Page B

food.”
    Life was so unfair—assuming he was telling the truth, about any of it. “So these Be-lee . . .” Marla stumbled over the word.
    “Buh-lee-ins,” Luke sounded it out. “What about them?”
    “They’re really bad, huh?”
    “Think Hitler, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer.”
    “They were all Belians?”
    Luke drained one of the skillets into a can. “Not all bad people are Belians. But many of them are.”
    “And they come to Earth why?”
    The egg mixture went into the drained skillet, and Luke turned on the burner beneath it. “It’s complicated. All of this started in Atlantis.”
    That again. “So you’re saying Atlantis really existed?”
    Luke looked at her. “Yes, I am. It came into being over 100,000 years ago.”
    She mulled that over while he cooked the eggs. She got up to help when he began bringing food to the table, but he waved her back down. “I can do this. Just keep psycho dog in check.”
    On cue, Bryony growled as he set the bacon on the table. “Hush.” Marla gave her a little shake. “If you don’t behave, you’ll have to go back outside.” She set Bry on the floor. “You stay right there.” The poodle lay down, keeping an eye on Luke.
    Luke put everything on the table, including dishes and silverware—no knife for her, Marla noted. He took the chair opposite her, for which she was grateful. Even from here, she could feel the pull of the energy between them, although it was somewhat muted.
    He piled his plate with an outrageous amount of food and dug in. Still suffering a headache and feeling queasy, Marla started with a biscuit. “You were talking about Atlantis.”
    “Yeah. The first Atlantians were enlightened and peaceful. They worshiped one God, although their term was The One. They were very advanced, in both psychic powers and technology. They could travel through space and time—”
    “They did time travel?”
    “Sure did. They were very advanced beings.”
    She tried to get her mind around that. “So what happened to them?”
    “First off, they got enmeshed in the Earth. They started out as spiritual beings, but then they took on physical bodies. Physical substance is denser than spiritual substance. They began to forget their connection to the Creator.”
    That actually made sense, which was kind of scary. She realized Luke was pausing at regular intervals, probably to give her time to absorb what he was saying. That sharp blue gaze was watchful and assessing, that powerful body deceptively relaxed, ready to move if she went ballistic. Which might happen at any time, if this story got any weirder. “Go on,” she said.
    “The first Atlantians were known as the Children of One, because they worshipped one God. But eventually, the paradise became corrupted. An Atlantian named Belial began gaining power. His followers became known as the Sons of Belial.”
    “Belians,” Marla murmured, making the logical jump.
    Luke nodded, approval in his gaze. “The Belians thrived on darkness, power, and blood. They began making human sacrifices to their dark gods. And because the Children of One were peaceful and passive by nature, the Belians easily gained power. They took control of the great crystal that provided all the power for Atlantis. And they turned it into a death ray, to battle their enemies. But that eventually backfired, when misuse of the crystal destroyed Atlantis.”
    “But according to you, the Atlantians aren’t really gone,” Marla said, remembering their earlier conversation. “Because they’re being reincarnated on Earth again.” Not that she believed in reincarnation—or at least hadn’t before now.
    “Right.” Luke got up for more coffee. “The Belians started coming back when technology began to approach what it was on Atlantis. Since they are corrupted souls, they began spreading destruction and terror on the Earth. So the original Atlantians—mainly those who had served in the temple—also began reincarnating to track down the