I continued to watch as Catherine’s arms phased in and out. I continued to watch as the beings before me zoomed forward and backward. I continued to wince then recover as the pain flared then receded.
Was I in purgatory? Was I stuck in some kind of ghost loop? Destined to relive my dying moment forever? I’d read that in books before, figured if someone created it, in this new world of supernaturals, it was probably possible.
The world froze.
I tried and failed to move, but rather than chalk it up to dying, I assumed I was frozen too. But, why could I hear my thoughts? Why weren’t they frozen? This would make an amazing story to tell later.
Catherine’s arms tightened around me then loosened.
My eyes closed then reopened. I had the thought that Rowan had won; the timeline would change the way she wanted. Yet, this thought appeared apart from me, running parallel to my current thoughts observing it. Whoa. That was so meta.
Robin’s arms were raised as if about to attack Rowan. Marcie and Theresa stood on either side of her.
Catherine’s voice murmured in my ear. I again noted my thought that I couldn’t comprehend her, running parallel to my observational thought about noticing. She moved backward to stand before me. She was still phasing in and out like she was having trouble staying in our time and/or dimension. My head jerked to the side like someone had slapped me, but then her hand was there on my cheek and my head moved. As if I slapped her hand with my face.
The truth stunned me. Time was moving backward. Yet my thoughts remained enough to observe it.
My eyes closed as time returned to the moment before Catherine slapped me. My eyes opened and looked down to take in the huge burned gash that ran the length of my torso. I had the thought that this was what dying felt like, wanting my arms to respond but they didn’t, wanting to touch the charred edges of my chest.
The thought that I was a stump ran through my mind again, my head lay on my chest, trying to determine whether I still had extremities. Then the thought that I couldn’t feel my extremities any longer. Dimmed pain began to flare, a breathed out sigh instead of in. Accepting that I was dying.
A thought that I was glad to see Tony’s intelligence, then backward into meeting his eyes and seeing the human intelligence beside the animal. He whined again. His electric green eyes moved away from mine and I heard him whimpering. Wondered if that was Tony. Meta-me found this whole reversal fascinating.
Was Tony standing guard or planning to attack Rowan? She stared at me, slack-jawed, then looked away. Tony’s growls reached my ears, a constant low rumble. He stood before me, but facing the angry ghost.
Now that I’d realized time was flowing backward, I wondered how far we would go. Back to where Rowan’s energy arc hit me? And then what? Move forward again? The thought that I’d spend eternity reliving the most painful moment of my life forever hurt my brain. Was this what it was like for a ghost stuck in a murder-loop?
I re-heard my thought that if you fell asleep when severely injured you died, then my eyes closed. I needed a quick nap. Everything hurt so much. I was so tired. I wondered if Tony was trying to speak to me, then his growling penetrated through my brain fog.
My hand wanted to reach to pet the big kitty, but it didn’t respond. Tony’s tongue licked my cheek. My eyes closed. Something rough touched my cheek.
Lack of energy prevented me from laughing while I relived my thought about the fuzzy pain. Everything was becoming fuzzy. But I didn’t care too much. The meta-me found it interesting that some of this scene flowed the same forward and backward.
I recognized that Catherine was behind me, her mouth next to my ear. “Liz! Are you okay?” Her voice swam away.
When I thought I’d yelled, I was shocked to discover my words were barely audible. “Ow, ow, ow,” I repeated.
My body felt like it was on fire. I patted myself to douse the flames, realized I wasn’t on fire. I had the strange sensation of sliding up from the floor to a standing position. The initial thought of being hit with the burning pain of a thousand suns recurred. And, damn, even in my meta-state, that hurt all over again. But I was still moving. I knew where this would end. My body slid sideways as I reversed my dive in front of Catherine. Rowan’s arcing red energy reversed from my chest. So bizarre to see it like it was arcing from me and not to me. It returned to Rowan’s hands. The eyes in her face burned with hatred. No, that wasn’t right, I realized. It was desperation. That threw meta-me for a moment.
As the energy disappeared into Rowan’s hands and she lowered her arms, my mouth moved. Oh, yeah, I had forgotten about my smart aleck comment.
“We’ve won. There’s nothing you can do to stop us,” I said backwards.
The world froze again. And then started back up.
Oh no, I’d have to relive the pain again.
Rowan raised her arms to attack, but Catherine was already moving. She leapt toward me and we crashed to the ground as the energy arced harmlessly into the doorjamb behind us. Nobody was hit. Catherine jumped to her feet before I even had time to be awestruck that somehow she reversed time and saved me. Her voice thundered out of her.
“Rowan! Enough. Stop.”
And, amazingly, the desperate, time-traveling ghost did.
Everybody halted what they were doing. We all stared at Catherine. Given the looks on the others’ faces, I wasn’t the only one who just experienced the reversal of that scene. I spoke for all of us.
“Catherine, what the heck just happened?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Catherine glanced between all of us, a look of uncertainty on her face. She opened her mouth, closed it.
I jumped into the quiet. “Dang, woman, what did you do? What are you?”
The empath responded to my questions with a quick shake of her head. “I don’t know.”
“Time went backward. You saved me,” I said.
She nodded. “How?”
We all looked around at each other, even Rowan. Nobody had an answer for Catherine. A growl drew my attention and I ran to Tony. I knelt before him, taking his snout into my hands. Those green eyes saw into my soul; that was how it felt, anyway. I kissed the tip of his nose. He chuffed at me, then turned and padded out of the room.
“Tony?” I stepped to follow, but stopped when Marcie shook her head.
“He needs a minute.”
Understanding dawned. He needed to shift back into his human form. Hmm, would he be naked when he shifted? A flush crept up my neck at the direction of my thoughts. Hey, that’s what happened in the shifter books I read.
Unidentifiable sounds from outside the room reached my ears. What was Tony doing? When he walked back into the room, I couldn’t stop the chuckle. He smirked at me.
“Enjoying the show, Liz?” His voice hoarser than normal, perhaps because of the shifting.
“I am,” I confirmed. My eyes traveled the length of the now-human shifter. He wasn’t naked. It was even better. The noises I’d heard had been him removing a window covering – very Gone with the Wind. Tony stood before us with a sheet wrapped, toga style, around his waist, crossing his chest, and over one shoulder. It was a good look on his lithe frame. I wanted to fan myself, but resisted the urge. We exchanged a heat-filled glance. He walked to stand beside me, energy pouring off of him.
Theresa cleared her throat. “Not that this isn’t interesting, but what now?” She pointed at the ghost.
All heads swiveled to Rowan. Tears streamed down her face. She shook her head. “I don’t understand what happened.”
“You killed me,” I told her bluntly. “Then Catherine reversed time to undo your damage.”
“I don’t want to kill anyone,” Rowan whispered. Her arms hung at her sides. “I want my family back.”
That familiar pain of loss sliced through me at her words. “This isn’t the way to do it.”
“Maybe I’m wrong?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, I t
hink so.”
“What do I do now?”
“I have no idea. We’ll help you figure that out.” I smiled, and she returned a shy one. I spun to Catherine. “But you… what the heck?”
“I think I know what happened,” Rowan answered my question to Catherine.
“You do?” Catherine responded.
“You time traveled,” the ghost said simply.
Catherine’s mouth fell open. “But… I don’t… I’ve got nothing.”
“How is that possible?” Robin asked.
Rowan shrugged. “That I don’t know.”
“Barbara Knollman said from the moment you came to town that you were important,” I reminded Catherine, who blushed.
“Is this what she meant?”
“I have no idea,” I answered with a laugh. Adrenaline that had coursed through my body from my near-death experience had made me giddy. “You’re going to save the world.”
“Not exactly,” came a voice from the doorway.
“You do that on purpose, don’t you?” I teased the archangel.
“Wouldn’t it be boring if I walked in like everyone else?” Olivia Williams responded with a wink.
“Can you explain what Catherine did?” I asked.
The blue-haired, blue-eyed archangel belly laughed. “Of course.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Catherine, Rowan, Robin, Marcie, Theresa, Tony and I waited semi-patiently for Olivia to deliver on her promise of explaining Catherine’s apparent new skill. Time traveling. Who knew?
“First, let me congratulate all of you,” Olivia began. “You’ve done it.” She beamed at us.
“Done what? Have we fixed whatever went wrong in Rowan’s timeline?” I scratched my head, more like a nervous tic than to show my confusion.
Olivia walked to Rowan, took the time traveling ghost’s hands in her own. “Yes,” she answered my question, but kept her eyes trained on the ghost. “You have.”
Rowan’s watery eyes widened and she whispered, “They have?”
Olivia nodded. Rowan threw her arms around the archangel. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Olivia patted the ghost’s head, like comforting a child, before detangling from her.
“It’s time for you to return to your own time,” Olivia told the ghost.
Rowan grimaced. “You mean, cross over? ‘Cause I died.”
Olivia quirked an eyebrow. “That’s not true anymore.”
“It’s not?” I asked before Rowan could.
Olivia gestured for me to stay out of it and directed her answer at the ghost. “It’s not true anymore,” she confirmed. “When I said that the timeline had been changed, I meant completely.”
“My family?” Rowan asked, voice trembling.
The archangel nodded. “You’re all alive. That’s all I can say.”
Rowan took several deep breaths. She waved a hand in front of her face but it didn’t stop the waterworks. Tears fell and she hugged herself. “I don’t know what to say.” She looked at the group of us. “I can never repay you.”
“I’m glad we did this without anybody dying this time,” I quipped, fear rippling through me at my remembered death, though the memory faded more with the passing of time.
Catherine rolled her eyes at me, but said nothing.
“Are you ready?” Olivia asked Rowan.
“Wait!” the ghost exclaimed.
“What?”
“Can you send me back after you explain what Catherine did?”
Olivia’s mouth fell open. I guessed it took a lot for someone to surprise her.
“It’s just,” Rowan continued with a small shrug, “I’ve never seen a human, even with supernatural abilities, move time back and forth like that.” She grinned. “Please.”
The archangel chuckled. “Sure. I can do that.” Olivia approached Catherine, who dropped her eyes. “Look at me.” Catherine complied. “Do you believe you time traveled?”
“That would seem to be the case,” she side-stepped in her answer.
“It’s not quite accurate.”
“It’s not?” I interjected again. Olivia ignored me this time.
“What did I do?” Catherine whispered her question. “What am I?”
“You are a descendant of Kronos,” Olivia began.
“Wasn’t he the God of Time?” Theresa asked.
Olivia nodded. “Yes, he was.”
“Catherine’s a Goddess?” I asked this incredulously. The empath in question paled. Olivia shook her head.
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“Thank goodness,” Catherine blurted.
“You are genetically a descendant,” Olivia clarified.
“What does that mean?” Catherine asked.
“Your role is to keep the timeline on track.”
“No pressure there,” she muttered.
“When you moved time backward to save Liz, did you consciously choose to do that?”
“No. I didn’t even know I could.”
“Then what happened?” Olivia asked the question, but I frowned, uncertain where she was going with this line of inquiry.
“Everything felt wrong when Liz died and I had the thought that I needed to fix it.” Catherine shrugged. “It all happened so fast.”
“In the moment of stress, knowing the timeline was going off track—” Olivia started to say.
“Because Rowan was never supposed to be here,” I wondered aloud and Olivia frowned at me for my continual interruptions. I grinned at her. “Sorry.”
“Your power activated in that moment of realization,” Olivia continued to explain to Catherine. “It didn’t matter that you didn’t know what was happening.”
“I’ve been in life-threatening situations before. I’ve had people I care about be in life-threatening situations before—”
“Aw, does that mean you care about me?” I interrupted
“I’m reconsidering my position on the matter,” Catherine said, rolling her eyes.
“Or is it something else that you can’t tell us?” I asked Olivia.
“You were partially right, Liz. Rowan was never supposed to be here. But, it was also because it needed to be something messing directly with the timeline to spark the development of the power. Like a trial.”
“To see if I was worthy?” Catherine asked.
“Something like that.” Olivia tilted her head. “Going forward, you’ll become even better at recognizing when things are going sideways and you’ll be able to consciously choose to intervene.”
Catherine audibly swallowed. “I will? Now that really sounds like a lot of pressure.”
“I’ll guide you.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” Catherine breathed.
Olivia turned back to Rowan. “Are you ready now?”
“Yes.” The ghost faced us. She appeared stricken. “I want to apologize for all the pain I caused.” She looked at me. “Even if some of it was only temporary.” Her fingers fidgeted in front of her, clasped together. “I didn’t know what else to do. When I discovered I could direct myself elsewhere in time as a ghost, I had to try. I had to save my family.” Rowan began glowing. “And I did. Thank you for everything.” The ghost flickered, phasing in and out of our dimension, timeline, however Olivia would describe it. With a final wave at us, Rowan winked out of our existence.
Olivia copied Rowan’s wave at us. “That’s my cue to depart. I’ll be in touch,” she said to Catherine. “Oh, Liz?”
“Yes?”
“What have you learned from this?”
I frowned. “Don’t mess with Catherine?” The empath smacked my arm and the archangel shook her head.
“Try again,” she said dryly.
I pondered her question. What was I missing? The heat still flowing off of Tony distracted me for a moment and I gazed at him. He raised his eyebrows. Did he know what the archangel was asking? I turned back to Olivia, lifted my hands
in a gesture of helplessness. “I don’t know.”
Olivia smirked. “Let’s just say that you and Tony are more compatible than you might think.” And with that obscure pronouncement, Olivia winked out of our existence too.
“That wasn’t vague at all,” I grumbled.
“We’ll give you guys a moment,” Catherine said, with a knowing look at us. She and the others filed out, several smiling or waggling their eyebrows at us. When they were gone, I faced Tony.
“Am I the only one who doesn’t understand what Olivia was hinting at?”
“Probably.”
I slow nodded. “You know what she meant.”
“I do.”
“And you’re not going to tell me.”
“I’m not.”
“How come?”
Tony didn’t answer. He brushed my jaw with his fingers, the touch sending shock waves of pleasure through my body. I curled my fingers around his, holding them in place. Our breath commingled. He stepped back from me, an acute sense of loss filling the space he’d occupied.
“I need to find the answer on my own,” I speculated, and he nodded.
“Do you still have reservations about humans and supernaturals?” he asked.
“Yes,” I admitted, shame over the answer flooding me. “No matter how much they like and are attracted to each other.”
Hurt shown in his eyes, but also compassion and understanding. He gave a sad smile. “At least you admit you find me attractive.”
I laughed at the unexpected comment and took a step forward. “Attraction has never been the issue,” I assured him. “Time to process. That’s what I need,” I concluded. “Can you give me that?”
“You know where to find me,” he answered. With as much dignity as a man wrapped in a faux-toga could muster, he left the room.
I stood alone and contemplated everything I’d seen, felt, and learned in the past – what? 30 minutes?
When we first met, Tony had been shocked I could smell his cat. Olivia had said he and I were more compatible than I knew. My mind raced. I was fairly certain she didn’t mean I was also a shifter, though I poked at my skin anyway.
Paranormal Talent Agency Episodes 4-6 Page 24