Jacob Michaels Is... The Omnibus Edition: A Point Worth LGBTQ Paranormal Romance Books 1 - 6

by Chase Connor

  Of course, I really had no one to blame but myself. Oma might have fucked with our memories some, after I jumped in the well the first time, and since I’d been back, but we had lost a lot of our real memories in the first place thanks to me. I was the one who had made three wishes and jumped into the well in the cellar—when it was still there—to use the power to defeat Bloody Bones. But like every witch that had come before me, I had failed to understand that no magic would ever be strong enough to defeat him for good. He was just as big a part of the magic of the lands we stood upon as anyone else.

  “Made sure they was buried properly,” Oma said, jabbing at the ground and avoiding my eyes. “Respectful like. Me and the Kobolds saw to that, Rob.”

  “I’m sure you did your best.” I had no fight in me now that I knew the truth.

  “Your mom, well, she was really just collateral damage,” Oma said quietly, staring at the ground. “Your daddy, he knew what was comin’ for him. He just didn’t realize it was comin’ so soon. He met Carlita that mornin’, while you was wakin’ up and havin’ breakfast…by the time he got to the house after talkin’ to Carlita and bein’ told he was comin’, ole Red Eyes had done did what he did to your mother and was turnin’ on you. Your daddy did his best to run Bloody Bones off…but he knew he had to face him in real battle. He knew he had to do what he was born to do.”

  “I see.”

  “Jesus in a gravy boat,” Oma shook her head, “we had trained him like he was young. Just like all the others. But Bloody Bones never came when it was time. We thought maybe he was never comin’. Your daddy went on about his life. Got married. Had you…y’all was livin’ pretty good. Then…poof. Bloody Bones decided to show up. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. But it is what it is.”

  “It is that.” I sighed, wrapping my arms around Lucas.

  “So,” I said, “I was born, and this ended up falling on me instead of some other distant relative simply because he decided to take a rest?”

  “Essentially.” Oma shrugged. “I suppose so. If he had come for your father when he should-a, well, we wouldn’t be talkin’ right now, Rob. But…well, you know the story of how Bloody Bones came to be. You know about the first witch. You know about how the magic to fight him was in her bloodline and the magic she used that made that well. You know your parents died that day—your mom protecting you—and your daddy doin’ what he was born to do. You know I ain’t your grandmother—”

  “You’re The Guardian,” I said simply, unemotionally.

  “Yes.” She sighed and looked up at us. “By the time he came for your daddy, Carlita and I was about fed up with this shit. A witch defeats him, he goes away. Comes back, another witch defeats him. On and on and on. Ain’t none of ‘em ever been powerful enough to keep him in the ground for good or outright destroy him. Or send him straight back down to Hell.”

  “But—”

  “Well,” Oma interrupted me, “that ain’t necessarily true. The first witch…well, she did it. He would-a stayed locked away for good, I imagine. If it weren’t for that goddamn well. And then—”

  “Why did the well just…pop up out of the round?”

  “That I don’t know.” Oma shook her head. “Carlita and I have discussed that over…many, many years…and the best we can decide is that there was too much magic in The Witch—the first one—for these lands to contain. Or maybe she consciously did that knowing that there would be extra help in the future if he ever returned. But…like all humans…your ancestors was a greedy bunch. Usin’ magic like Lake Erie is filled with it. They perverted and destroyed that well. By the time you came around, we knew there wasn’t much left for you to use if the time came.”

  “Just enough to make things drag on a little longer.” I nodded.

  “Right.” Oma nodded. “And I just lied to you.”

  “What?” Lucas whispered, standing up a little straighter next to me, though his hands stayed tightly around mine.

  “I said the first witch was the only one that could’ve gotten rid of him for good,” Oma explained. “That ain’t necessarily true. When your daddy died putting that shitass back in the ground, and I came here to look after you, to train you, teach you…I saw a little of that first witch in you. I thought you could actually do what needed to be done—but in a more permanent way. We just had to keep you alive long enough for you to build up the strength to do it.”

  “So,” I snorted, my eyes shutting as I smiled ruefully, “you taught me the story. You trained me how to use my magic, you told me about Bloody Bones. You let me find the well—put the idea in my head to wish things away so that Bloody Bones would get sealed away a bit longer, the pack of wolves he built with the help of The Council would back off once their leader wasn’t there to lead…then you put the idea in my head to run away.”

  It wasn’t asking questions. I was recounting my memories.

  “That sums it up mostly.” She agreed, letting the stick in her hand drop the ground so that she could cross her arms over her chest. “But then this one comes along.”

  Oma jabbed a finger at Lucas, and he actually twitched.

  “While Bloody Bones was suckin’ up magic out of the land and finding people to store it in until he was ready to rise and take it all back to use in his final attempt to stay in this world forever—to make it his…I don’t know…kingdom?...he gave this one something special. Something he didn’t mean to. He gave him the power to foresee things. Some folks around here ain’t magical at all. Some is good with fire or levitating things. Some is good with potions or spells. But, Lucas here, he’s special. I think he might have given him a bit of magic he didn’t know enough about.”

  “What does that mean?” Lucas hissed his question.

  “Well,” Oma sighed, “your gift of foresight rivals that of Carlita—may she rest in peace. Way back when, when you two was becoming friends—”

  “Which you and my grandfather arranged!” Lucas barked.

  “Well, yeah.” Oma shrugged again. “No sense in lyin’. When you two became friends—we saw a powerful witch and a powerful oracle. Carlita and I got to thinkin’….”

  Lucas and I looked at each other, trying to figure things out. Finally, it dawned on me. I turned to Oma, an incredulous smile on my face.

  “You thought that maybe I’d put this fucker in the ground for good, you and Carlita could, I don’t know, retire, and Lucas and I could take over as guardian and oracle? Just in case he ever came back, and another witch needed to be found?”

  Lucas snorted.

  “That’s about the size of it, yeah.” Oma agreed, then her face turned angry. “But you was supposed to be gone at least another decade, damnit. You needed to mature and have your power grow. If you couldn’t remember you had it, you wouldn’t be usin’ it for all them years. It could grow while he was stuck in the ground. But then you came back way before I expected it…and you started a whole chain of events, damnit. I tried runnin’ you off. Made you think you was seein’ things, hearin’ things, savin’ somethin’ that looked like you form the lake, havin’ Andrew attack you. Even negotiated with Jason and his pack to scare ya’ a bit. They was more than happy to if it meant Bloody Bones would be destroyed, and maybe they could have their…disease…removed. Everyone worked together—except this one—since he didn’t have his memories—to get you to leave.”

  “You pushed us together when I came back,” I grumbled. “How did that serve your purpose?”

  “Thought maybe you’d get scared off if you thought you was fallin’ in love,” Oma replied evenly. “You two was thick as thieves when you was young. I was quite impressed with the way you both worked together and put the dots together about the well and wishing things different. And, well, it brought me peace, knowing that when the time came—ten years from now—if you came back and banished Bloody Bones for good, and the two of you took over for me and Carlita—you’d have each other. You could spend the next millennia in each other’s company. A love story for the
ages.”

  I pulled my hand out of Lucas’ and began a slow clap.

  “Well done, asshole,” I said to Oma.

  “It wasn’t a perfect plan.” She hissed at me. “But we saw a chance to tip the tables in our favor. To get rid of this never-ending cycle of him comin’ and goin’. We was tryin’ to do right by you and your long family line, you asshole!”

  “So, what now?” Lucas asked quickly, glancing over at me. “If Rob’s here too early and Bloody Bones is off sucking up all the magic he pulled out of the land and stored away—”

  “Yeah.” Oma nodded. “I bet most the people in this town is dead already. He’ll be heading this way soon, I spose.”

  “So, what do we do now?” Lucas demanded.

  “He’ll fight.” Oma waved a hand at me. “He’s gonna say he won’t, but he will. It’s what people like him do.”

  “People like him?” I grumbled.

  “Witches.” She spat. “Good people who do what they was born to do. Protect others. That’s what people like you do. Because you was born to do it.”

  “Fuck you.” I groaned.

  She shrugged.

  Something in my head, some tiny little voice was telling me something.

  “So,” I said, “he’s been pulling magic out of the land and giving it to people. Giving them powers. Storing it away so one day, he could rise and take it all back and be more powerful than a witch could ever hope. Then he could squash that witch—me—easily and do what he’s always wanted to do? Rule the world or some shit?”

  “Spose.”

  “Where do you think he learned that idea?” I asked.

  “What?” Oma and Lucas asked at the same time.

  “People up here were using magic left by The Witch.” I shrugged with a snort. “Maybe he got the idea of borrowing magic from that. Ya’ think?”

  “It’s possible.” She sniffed.

  “But—” Lucas began.

  “And did it ever occur to you,” I interrupted him, “that maybe the first witch created the well to create balance?”

  Lucas turned to me, a shocked expression on his face. Even Oma turned to me, concern etched all over her face.

  “There’s magic in the lands.” I waved my arms around wildly. “Where he gets his power. Maybe the witch put the well full of magic there to create balance—that’s what kept him in the ground. People siphoning from it, creating imbalance…he started siphoning and storing away his own. He knew the day would come that the well would run dry, and the scales would tip. You put the idea in my head to use the well—my whole family had been doing it after all—and wish him away. Then you confused me into using it a second time to implant more fake memories in my head when I got back. That was the last of it. There was no more balance. As soon as that well went dry, he’s been digging his way up, lady.”

  Oma whispered something.

  “What?” I barked.

  “As above, so below,” Oma repeated but not much louder or more clearly. “One of the first rules of magic.”

  “I don’t know what that means,” Lucas waved her off and turned to me, “Rob, what are we going to do?”

  He took my face in his hands, turning my eyes from Oma to his.

  “We know everything now.” He said. “What are we going to do?”

  “The only way to seal him back in the ground,” I stared at Lucas for a moment, “would be to create another well. Create balance.”

  For several breaths, Lucas stared into my eyes.

  “That would do it.” Oma offered with a sigh.

  Suddenly, a realization came to Lucas.

  “No!” He demanded, his hands clenching at me. “You’re not going to do that, Rob! No!”

  “What other choice do we have?” I put my hands on his shoulders. “It’s either all of us die, or…or…”

  “That would leave me and her!” Lucas jabbed a finger at Oma, but his eyes stayed on mine. “You wouldn’t be saving much, Rob. Everyone in this town is likely dead, having been drained by him. Taking the magic back will kill a person, right? Right?”

  He was talking to Oma.

  “I reckon so.” She said, chewing at the side of her mouth. “But, I ain’t goin’ door to door to find out.”

  Lucas turned back to me.

  “You can’t sacrifice yourself just for us.” Lucas shook his head. “I won’t let you.”

  “I’m not sacrificing myself for the two of you,” I said, placing a hand on his cheek. “I’m doing it for you. And the rest of the people in the world. I mean…do you think he’s going to stop at Point Worth? That he’ll be happy with that?”

  “Rob…” Lucas groaned.

  “Give me options.” I offered to him. “Tell me what else can work. I’m willing to listen.”

  “There ain’t no other way,” Oma said sharply. “You meet him in battle, and you defeat him. Or he defeats you.”

  “Shut up!” Lucas barked at Oma, shocking me, but pleasantly. “What happens then, Rob? Huh? You seal him away; we get a new well…then someone else comes along and uses the power? Then another? And another? Until it’s all gone in a few centuries, and he comes back? Then what?”

  “Maybe someone in my bloodline will still be around...” I hadn’t thought of that.

  “If you can’t destroy him, you can’t let yourself be destroyed.” Lucas shook his head. “This is an impossible problem.”

  “How can he be destroyed, Lucas?” I asked him, pleaded with him. “As long as there is magic up here, there’s…Bloody Bones.”

  The ground shook. Oma gasped, and Lucas grimaced.

  “That ain’t supposed to happen,” Oma mumbled. “Bastard already crawled up out of Hell.”

  “Again,” I snorted, “totally shocked that the portal to Hell was in this town.”

  Lucas gave a tight smile as the ground settled. We looked into each other’s eyes as Oma stood in the middle of the garden, looking around as though she might come up with a solution. Or maybe she was looking for a place to bury me if my plan didn’t work. Who was to say? Lucas stared at me, different emotions flashing across his face in succession, as though he was trying to think of something to say—or maybe how to say it.

  “What is it?” I asked softly.

  “Rob,” Lucas said, “I saw you coming.”

  “Point Worth was on fire,” I replied. “And I’m a fireman.”

  “And I saw how this ends.”

  “I know.”

  “I don’t know what comes after…but I didn’t see you die.” Lucas said. “I saw…I saw…”

  “What?” I asked, leaning in and kissing his lips softly. “What is it, babe?”

  “I saw myself die.” Lucas swallowed hard. “Not you.”

  I’d never been a wordsmith or someone who could eloquently describe my feelings in a way that would sound poetic. So, I had no way to describe the feeling of my heart dropping from my chest like a rollercoaster towards my feet while it felt like someone punched me in the gut simultaneously. Lucas’ revelation about what he had seen was a one-two assault on my body and mind. All I could do was stare at him dumbly as my entire body went numb, and my heart decided that it was going on vacation.

  “I died,” Lucas said. “Not you. That’s how this ends. At least…that’s part of it. I can’t see past my death.”

  “That’s not true.” I shook my head. “You’re lying. That serves no purpose in solving our problem. How do you even think telling me that is going to change my mind about this? You dying won’t stop Bloody Bones.”

  The ground shivered beneath our feet again.

  “Ooooh,” Oma waggled her head, not caring about the words Lucas and I were sharing, “he is comin’, and he is pissed.”

  “All I’m saying, Rob,” Lucas ignored her, “is that you can’t save me—if that’s why you’re choosing to do what you think you have to do. I’m going to die. So…if you’re doing this, only do it if you’re doing it for everyone else. Not me. It won’t help me.”


  “Stop it.” I shoved him gently, though I didn’t let him fall out of my personal space. “Stop fucking saying that.”

  “Do you want me to lie?” He sniffled.

  “No, I just—”

  “There has to be another way, Rob.” Lucas stopped me. “Nowhere in my vision did I see you die saving me. If you are supposed to do that, I would have seen it happen before my death. I didn’t see that.”

  “That doesn’t mean that I’m not supposed to fight him.”

  “Maybe there is still enough magic left in the lands.” Lucas offered quickly as the ground shook again, but harder. “If he can do it, maybe you can take magic from the land, too? Use his own tricks to defeat him and lock him away? If you used everything that’s left and stuff him back in the ground, send him to Hell permanently with all of that magic, maybe that will work?”

  “Will that save you?”

  He shrugged then shivered.

  “How can I know what the right thing to do is now, damnit?” I winced. “How do I know what can save you? If I do what was in my head all along, obviously, you die. But how are we to know what will happen if I change my mind about how to defeat him?”

  “Ya’ can’t change your mind,” Oma stated.

  “What?” Lucas and I both turned our heads to snap at her.

  “Ya’ can’t use the magic in the land.” She reiterated. “He’s carrying it all with him. Do you think the grounds shakin’ for fun? That sumbitch is stompin’ this way and sendin’ us a warnin’. He’s loaded for bear, and there’s nothin’ you can do about it but do what’s always been done.”

  I didn’t like it, but Oma had a point. Turning back to Lucas, I took his face in my hands.

  “There is only one way,” I told him in a hushed tone. “How do you die? Maybe if I—”

  As if knowing this was the most imperfect time, a wolf’s howl filled the air, making Lucas and I both jump as I stopped talking immediately. Oma sighed and turned to us, giving us a look that said: “Well, shit.” As a threesome, though Oma was standing a few yards away, we turned, looking off in the direction from which the sound came. Our eyes landed on the tree line of the woods, off in the direction of Lake Erie. At first, I saw nothing but darkness and the trees that helped to create that darkness.