Love Beyond Time

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Love Beyond Time Page 25

by Rebecca Royce


  younger, more vulnerable and not the cocky, arrogant man

  who had been standing before them since he had appeared

  just an hour before. Had it really just been an hour, she

  wondered. It felt like days and they still hadn't figured out

  where Kal was.

  "You're one of us." Veli took a few steps towards

  Drew before stopping suddenly by the sheer look of malice

  that crossed Drew's face. "I've been searching for you since

  you were a baby. I'm Veli; this is Leonardo, Charma,

  Marina and Isabelle. The young man who just vanished is

  Kal. You can see what we can see, you're one of us and

  none of us are, as you say, freaks. We're something akin to

  warriors. We protect humanity from the evils in the world

  that humans are simply not capable of handling by

  themselves. This thing today that possessed your boss and

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  the other man is one of those things."

  "I'm not one of anything." Drew's tone was sharp.

  "And if any one of you ever brings this up again, I'll expose

  you for killing the sheriff and that other cop. I don't do

  weird things most of the time and if I don't want to I don't

  have to see anything at all. You've got your map, good luck

  with your friend." Drew turned quickly and walked out the

  way he came but not before he had to have seen the look of

  sheer disappointment in Marina's eyes. He almost paused

  under it but kept moving.

  "Wait!" Marina called after him and charged

  towards the front door but he was already gone, obviously

  practiced at disappearing when he didn't want to be found.

  Maybe he turned back into a wolf, Isabelle thought. It

  would be easier to disappear like that. Marina seemed to

  crumble for a moment in front of the door but quickly

  regained herself and didn't take Charma's outstretched hand

  when it was offered to her. Isabelle thought that her eyes

  looked focused, determined, and slightly older than they

  had looked just moments earlier.

  "Now we have two major problems." Leonardo

  crossed the room to shut the door. "Three if you count Dot

  who is going to wake up from whatever stupor Charma has

  placed her in any moment and is going to want some

  answers." As if on cue, Dot appeared in the doorway of the

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  room. She was shaking and confused.

  "What happened to those men who were here

  earlier? Something has happened, hasn't it? Where is Kal?"

  Her voice was strained as if she had just woken up from a

  deep sleep and wasn't quite right yet.

  "Charma, would you mind?" Leonardo asked,

  gesturing towards Dot. Charma quickly crossed the floor

  and put her arms around a now shaking Dot.

  "Don't worry, Dot. All will be well." Charma closed

  her eyes and held Dot very still. A moment later Dot's eyes

  opened and she had a cheery look on her face.

  "Well," Dot stated easily. "I guess I'll just be going

  into town to get some more supplies. I don't know why I

  didn't remember these things when I went earlier. Love you

  all." Dot turned easily and walked out the front door

  towards the beach.

  "Thank god I taught that woman how to use a speed

  boat." Veli turned towards Leonardo.

  "Maybe Drew can catch a ride," Marina muttered

  under her breath.

  "Is that how you've kept her in the dark all of these

  years? Charma just changes her memories and sends her

  away?" Isabelle stood up from the floor. She hadn't realized

  that she had sunk to her knees until she felt herself rising

  from them. "Doesn't it cause brain damage?"

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  "Not yet." Charma's tone held an unusual edge.

  Isabelle got the impression that Charma wasn't in love with

  her lot in life and didn't enjoy being the means of deceiving

  Dot. "But some day it might and then I'll be responsible for

  damaging the closest thing I've ever had for a mother."

  Marina was still staring at the ceiling watching the

  now illuminated map above her. She seemed to be the only

  one who could see what was interesting up there, other than

  the fact that there was a map on the ceiling to begin with,

  but if she could get Kal back using whatever it was that she

  was seeing, then Isabelle wasn't going to distract her.

  "Problem number two would seem to be the ever

  approaching sunset. As I'm sure everyone here is aware,

  Isabelle has to try to reach Abraxas to find out the location

  of the books before it gets too late. We are running out of

  time. Problem number three would be locating Kal and

  getting him back from wherever he is and whatever just

  took him," Leonardo finished, starting to pace.

  "Obviously it's the Darkness that took him." Veli

  shrugged.

  "Yes," Leonardo answered sharply. "But unless he

  is manifesting in his true form and using his true powers,

  unless he has gotten that strong all of a sudden then

  someone else provided the power to take Kal and if they

  can take Kal then they can take any of us and I personally

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  don't want to find myself on the receiving end of it. We're

  not prepared to defend ourselves from it yet."

  "He's gone. I doubt we'll ever get him back." Veli

  opened a bottle of water and took a sip. "We need to focus

  on Abraxas and the books before the Darkness grows any

  stronger and it's too late. We can't afford to wait until it's

  too late."

  "What?" Isabelle whirled around on Veli. "I'm not

  going after any books until we get Kal back. You might as

  well understand that right now."

  "He's either dead or turned over to be used as

  Darkness' pawn." Veli put his hands on his hips. "It is the

  way of things."

  "The way of things?" Isabelle turned on Veli, her

  eyes gleaming. How had Kal put up with this man for

  years? "There's a rule book for this kind of event? We just

  say whoops, Kal's gone, let's move on and find some god

  forsaken prophesies? Not going to happen. What if the

  prophecies tell us we can't win without Kal? I think he's

  probably pretty pivotal to our effort. The only thing I'm

  working on is finding Kal and then as far as I'm concerned,

  he and I are leaving here pronto and you can find your own

  book without my help. And by the way, just as an aside,

  I've been in Kal's mind. He's not capable of turning evil. He

  would die first, which is what I wish you would do at the

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  moment." Isabelle whirled around to Marina. "Can you still

  see whatever it is that you can see on that thing?"

  "Let's not pretend that you wouldn't be more

  anxious to find Kal if you weren't so afraid and jealous of

  him." Leonardo spat back at Veli.

  Isab
elle was relieved to see that they were on the

  same side on this issue.

  "I can still see him," Marina finally answered. "His

  life force is still strong. I can see it clearly on the map. It's

  stopped moving. He's still nearby. Evidently, whoever

  pulled him away from here isn't strong enough to take him

  very far. We could probably be there in a few hours. It

  looks like he's somewhere close to the Maine, New

  Hampshire border." Marina turned towards Isabelle. Her

  eyes were slightly glowing and Isabelle could see the same

  strength and determination flowing back at her. Marina had

  no intention of leaving Kal to die.

  "I've never been jealous in my life," Veli answered

  Leonardo. "Not of Kal's father and certainly not of Kal."

  "Oh sure you are. Kal just handled that

  confrontation without your help at all. You kept insisting

  that he was using too much power and not focused enough

  but he was so much stronger without your power, without

  your interference and every time you joined in you

  weakened us. He doesn't need you anymore and you're so

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  jealous you might as well be green," Leonardo shouted

  finally.

  "We've been without the books before, Veli, and

  we'll have another chance next month." Leonardo crossed

  to Marina and Isabelle and seemed to calm down a bit.

  "There's no way any of us are leaving Kal, Isabelle. You

  can count on all of us." Charma crossed the room to join

  them, nodding silently in her consent.

  "So that's how it is?" Veli was furious. His eyes had

  started to glow with a faint red light. "All of these years I've

  taken care of you, fed you, and protected you. I never asked

  for this responsibility. You were thrust upon me without as

  much as a by your leave by Abraxas. And now you seek to

  defy me? You have no idea of that evil that we are dealing

  with it. I've seen it. I was there when we all foolishly

  brought it back from Hell, or whatever dimension it was. I

  never cared about such details. There were others to handle

  that. It all amounted to the same thing—it was hell and we

  brought it here. You will not defy me on this or so help by

  all things that are holy I will make you pay for your

  foolishness with your own blood."

  "What?" Leonardo looked incensed. "What do you

  mean you brought it back? I thought this was the Darkness

  that had always existed?"

  Isabelle took a step back towards Marina and

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  Charma. Leonardo's eyes had started to glow in a matching

  color to Veli's. Now more than ever she wished she had Kal

  with her, these people were all still essentially strangers to

  her and she felt as though she had been sucked into a

  family drama that even her years as a social worker and all

  of the psychology classes that she had taken in college were

  not going to help her solve. Leonardo was not supposed to

  have offensive powers, as far as Kal had known anyway

  but right now he looked like he was going to attack Veli

  physically.

  "We made a mistake." Veli was starting to huff and

  puff in such a way that Isabelle couldn't help but think of a

  dragon. Was he going to turn into a dragon? "It's not

  important. What is important is that we can correct it now.

  We can get Abraxas' books and we can find out what is

  going to happen and we can stop it this time and not let it

  all just be destroyed again."

  "Why am I sensing guilt, Veli?" Charma bravely

  stepped forward. "What did you do? You have to explain it

  to us. Your wife wants you to explain it. What did you do

  that we now have to undo? We're not just talking about a

  hypothetical fight. It is here, it is time, they have Kal and

  we have to know the truth. We're not children in this world.

  We live with the humans, we are adults."

  "It wasn't just me, god damn it," Veli snapped. "It

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  was all of your parents. We thought we were so smug, so

  talented, so worthy. We thought it was time to put an end to

  things. The Great One kept preaching about Evil and Good

  and our job as the balance of things. He kept insisting that

  there would always be evil in the world and that it was our

  job to just make it a little better, to protect the humans, to

  keep balancing things out. But the Darkness kept being

  reborn. It kept coming back as different things, every

  decade. We would fight it and fight it and fight it. My

  father was killed fighting it as that dragon. He left my

  mother alone with three children to raise and minions of the

  Darkness that had broken through our shelters killed both

  of my brothers in their sleep. That was the first time we

  knew that it was even capable of having minions. We

  would beat it and it would regroup for ten or so years and

  then it would come back stronger and we would have to

  beat it again. We live a long time; it was a lot of battles. We

  started to get frustrated. Everyone had lost someone they

  loved, most of us more than one person, and the humans

  were just so oblivious to the whole thing. Why did they

  deserve this much help? Abraxas and the Great One had

  orchestrated this whole façade that kept humans out of our

  village. They could walk there but they couldn't see it and

  then they would be filled with the strongest desire to leave

  it and not return."

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  Veli took a deep breath and seemed to regain some

  of his composure. "None of the humans I came in contact

  with ever seemed worthy of my father's and brothers'

  deaths. Why did we have to keep waiting for the Darkness

  to find us? Why was it so important to keep the status quo?

  We started meeting in secret. Abraxas knew but he kept his

  mouth shut and didn't tell the Great One. We gathered

  together to summon the evil to us. We were sure it would

  be weaker if it didn't have time to regroup. The idea was

  that we were going to trap it, to contain it within a binding

  spell. We didn't think we could kill it but we were sure if

  we could contain it, not give it a chance to get out or a

  chance to go back from where it came from then we could

  essentially be rid of it. Your mother," Veli stopped to point

  at Charma. "She wrote the spell for us and she was the best

  spell writer I had ever seen. I keep waiting for you to be

  able to do it but you're so weak, all of you were supposed

  to be so damn powerful, and you're like a bunch of

  weaklings. Worse than most children I knew."

  "Enough," Isabelle shouted. She had seen this kind

  of behavior before. Veli was trying to push his guilt and

  frustration onto all of them instead of facing up to his own

  culpability. "Finish your story, Veli. You have our

  att
ention. Our own weaknesses, most of which are probably

  your fault, are not what we are discussing here."

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  "Kal's father was going to bind it and then Charma's

  mother was going to permanently contain it. But as with

  everything having to do with Kal's family, Kal's father

  failed at his task. It was such a basic thing and we had done

  it a million times. I could have probably done it in my

  sleep. He couldn't hold the binding, he was so pathetic. It

  was too strong, too powerful for him. We could hear it

  laughing at us. Its voice was low and powerful like

  something out of a nightmare. Kal's father started

  screaming. He was in so much pain. I tried at that point to

  assist him but it was too late. The Darkness broke the

  binding and it wasn't weak or tired. It felt, I'm not sure I can

  tell you the best word for it; maybe the best word is raw. It

  felt raw, like a feral animal. It was loose but it didn't leave

  right away, not before it touched us. Each one of us felt it

  inside of us for a moment.

  "That's why I know that Kal has turned if it has

  been inside of him this whole time. This much time with it

  would be unbearable. No one could resist it. After that it all

  went to hell. The Great One died, my wife perished

  suddenly and the whole group got suddenly pregnant with

  you, the ones who were supposed to save us all. Now look

  at you, Abraxas should have let you die as babies and been

  done with the whole thing." Veli was finished. He looked

  exhausted and older, Isabelle realized. He seemed to have

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  aged ten years in just moments.

  "We're supposed to save the world from what you

  did?" Marina raised her voice, pointing at Veli. "You

  caused this to happen. There is an evil loose out there so

  powerful that it could drag Kal physically from this room

 

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