My Link in Time (The Immortal Ones--Book Two)

by S. L. Baum

  “We want information about your limousines,” James stated.

  “This isn’t a car rental place, people. If you’re looking to paint the town red and in style, I’m not your man,” Hubert mumbled and nervously shifted his bulk from one foot to the other.

  “You own limos. That much we know. We need to get in touch with the woman that uses them... Elizabeth. It is very important. But she is not answering her phone and we are getting a little worried about her,” James explained.

  “I let all my clients use my limos. Professional courtesy. I’m not recalling any Elizabeth on my client roster, at the moment. Plus, with client confidentiality, I really can’t give you any information about h-h-her anyway,” Hubert stuttered, and wiped the sweat from his brow.

  “About ‘her’ you said. So you do know who I am talking about. Don’t you?” James smiled at the man.

  “You guys need to leave my office right now,” Hubert projected. He tried to take a bold stance.

  “He knows,” Eve said, looking directly in his eyes. “I can see her in there. He deals directly with her.”

  “Crap on a cracker,” Hubert exhaled. “You’re some kinda psychic aren’t you? I can’t tell you about her. She said I can’t tell nobody, nothin’. She’d tan my hide. She’s one tough nut.”

  Eve placed her hands on Hubert’s shoulders. “You don’t have to tell me anything. Just close your eyes.”

  Hubert yanked himself back, away from Eve’s touch. He scrambled toward the phone that sat on the corner of his desk. “Look here, Missy. You guys have to git. You hear me? I’m calling the police.”

  “I don’t think so.” Link shook his head at the man and then turned to Cozmo. “Oz, do it now.”

  Hubert’s eyes flicked from Link to Cozmo and back again. His worried expression morphed into one of confusion as Oz winked at him with a wide smile. And then, he discovered that he wasn’t able to move a single muscle in his body.

  “Do your thing, Eve. I’ll keep zapping him as long as you need me to. Search for every scrap of information that you can pull out of him,” Cozmo told her.

  Eve walked over to the side of the desk where Hubert stood in his frozen state. She stretched out her arms and placed one hand on either side of his face, then closed her eyes. Her head fell back, as she started to absorb Hubert’s memories.

  “He’s never had any contact with her outside of this office. She calls him at any time of the day or night and he knows he has thirty minutes to make it here, or she will be extremely upset. He doesn’t like it when she is upset. His head throbs for days after she yells at him. She pays him in cash, but he is a signer on one of her bank accounts so he can pay her credit card bills. He keeps three limousines titled in his name that are exclusively hers. Whatever driver she uses gets a case of amnesia whenever she is transported to or from her home. She always comes to his office alone,” Eve streamed out his memories as they were coming to her. “None of this is all that useful,” she worried.

  “We’ll find something. Keep searching,” Link urged her on.

  “She never stays at the same casino for more than three days at a time. He’s noticed that she never has anything charged to the room. She likes the presidential type suites, the bigger the better. She was staying at Caesar’s this time. She said she likes being away from the buzz of the city when she goes home,” Eve paused. “That’s the beginning of something. Away from the city...” Then she closed her eyes again.

  Hubert started to stir. His fingers began to wiggle and a small moan escaped his mouth.

  “Zap him again, Oz,” Link said.

  After Cozmo flexed his powers and gave Hubert’s muscular system another freeze, Eve continued. “There is something in here. Give me a minute. Elizabeth wasn’t as careful as she thought she was. Oh, here! She told the driver to head north one time when she was leaving Hubert’s office, after she had just told him that she was on her way home. Another time, she called when she was on her way here and said ‘I just got in the car. I’m heading straight there. You’ve got exactly forty-five minutes to get to the office before I get there, and you’d better be there first.’ That is the best I’m going to get guys,” Eve sighed.

  “That doesn’t give us a lot to go on. But, it is a start,” Catherine stated. “Cozmo, can you keep him still while we search the place?”

  “Not a problem,” Cozmo answered.

  The six of them ransacked the office. Cozmo kept a close watch on Hubert, making sure he never fully regained the use of his body until they were ready to leave. It was a fruitless search, attaining them no additional knowledge of Elizabeth or her current whereabouts. Link reached into Hubert’s coat pocket and grabbed the man’s cell phone. He scrolled through the contacts looking for Elizabeth’s name and compared numbers with Catherine, but again... nothing new. They needed to move on. Precious time was being wasted.

  “Let’s leave. If we go to Caesar’s maybe we can find her room and search for clues there. I think we’ve obtained all we can hope for out of Hubert here,” Link said.

  “I’m going to try something that I’ve felt coming on for a little while now. I think I can capture some memories and remove them from his mind. I want to wipe us clean away from the Hubert Newton memory bank,” Eve explained.

  James nodded his head in approval. “That would be extremely helpful in this situation, Eve. Give it a go.”

  Eve again placed her hands on Hubert’s face. She moved her fingers, as if massaging his puffy, oversized head. Then, she brought her thumb and index finger together, on each hand, as if pinching the air beside his temples. With each pinch of her fingers, she drew her hand away from his face and then out into the air. She repeated this action over and over again. A few minutes later she stepped back.

  “I think I got them all. Everything from before Oz froze him. We should be erased now,” Eve gave a small smile.

  Cozmo froze Hubert one last time, after which they all walked out the door and back to the front parking lot where they’d parked the SUV. As the group rounded the corner, a limousine came into their view. Two dark clad figures stood by the driver’s side of the limo.

  “Lulach,” Link breathed.

  ****

  chapter ten

  THE RED ROOM

  Each and every hair follicle on my arms stood at attention as I followed Drew down the hallway. I’d been taken against my own will, for the second time in as many months. After several decades of safely avoiding danger, I seemed to be wading through an unending, mucky lake of it lately. It was getting tiresome, to say the least.

  Drew walked a few steps ahead of me. He glanced back, making sure I wasn’t lagging too far behind. A deep crimson red door stood a few paces in front of us, right where the hallway came to a dead end. “She’s amazingly powerful you know,” Drew said.

  “I realize that. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here,” I answered.

  “Me either... She promised to teach me how to be a more powerful Witch, that’s why I’m here,” he responded, as if I had chosen to be strong armed into compliance.

  “I’m not here to learn you know? She’s captured me and my friends!” I threw my hands up in the air, exasperated.

  Drew shrugged, uncaring. “Yeah, well, they are in here,” he said, gesturing toward the door. He turned the knob and swung it open, taking a step back. “You should go in now.”

  I took a few steps forward, into the Red Room, and glanced back at Drew. A puff of air blew the loose strands of hair, in my once perfect wedding do, around my head as the door slammed shut in my face. I heard the click of a lock and then footsteps retreating down the hall. I let my eyes adjust to the dimly lit room (a single candle provided the only illumination) then scanned the space to make sure my friends were indeed inside.

  “Marcus,” I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Charity, is that you?” Marcus croaked. He was sitting on the concrete floor, in the corner of the room, with his back propped against the wall. “Where are we?”


  “We’re in some remote house of Elizabeth’s.”

  “I don’t remember anything. Who dragged me in here?”

  “Nobody. You were floated in,” I answered. “Do you know where Summer is? Is she in here with you?” I asked.

  “Floated? Oh, forget it. I heard a moan coming from the other side of the room a minute or two ago, I think. I’m having a hard time shaking off whatever it is that knocked me out,” he said.

  “It’s Elizabeth,” I told him. “She used her sleep power on me and you. Summer too.”

  “How long have I been out?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure... around two hours maybe.”

  “How long did it take you to come out of it?”

  “A couple of minutes. She had to keep zapping me, but she eventually gave up.”

  “Man, I envy that super fast healing of yours.”

  I crouched down and gave Marcus a weak smile. “How’d she get you?” I asked.

  “I got a message to meet Elizabeth before your ceremony. I remember walking toward Elizabeth, but as soon as I got close to her, everything went black. Oh, Love, your wedding, I’m so sorry, dear girl.”

  “Pretty much sucks!” I quickly answered.

  I stood back up and turned around. Across the room, a chaise lounge was positioned near an unlit fireplace. Summer was sprawled out across it with one leg dangling to the floor. She was still passed out, cold. I went to her side and brushed the hair back from her face. She didn’t stir, Elizabeth’s power kept her in a deep slumber. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered to my friend.

  “Are we the only ones here?” Marcus asked.

  “From our group? Yes, I’m pretty sure,” I answered. “Elizabeth has two Witch flunkies working for her. One is named Andrew, as far as I can tell his only power is being a home shield for Elizabeth. The other one is Barbie, and she looks like a Barbie. I don’t think her powers have manifested themselves yet. There is someone else here too. His name is Nikola. He says he’s the Caster.”

  Marcus pushed back from the wall and sat up a little taller. “Seriously? You’ve met THE Caster and he’s here in this house?”

  “I am completely serious. He and Elizabeth were talking about a lot in the limo ride over, but I was only getting bits and pieces of. He said something about consulting a book, actually he said ‘the book’ like Elizabeth knew exactly which book.”

  “He’s got The Book here?” Marcus blinked in surprise.

  “What is The Book?”

  “The Book of Spells! Only the true Caster can read from The Book and perform the spells inside. The writing cannot be translated and the spells cannot be written in any known language, the ink disappears.”

  “How do you know that stuff?” I asked.

  “I met a Caster obsessed Witch a few years back. She went on and on about info she’d gathered over the years. It was interesting, so I encouraged her stories. I don’t know how much of it was truth and how much was rumor, but this lady could talk for hours on the subject.”

  I started to pace the room, making a straight line from Summer to Marcus and back again. “What could Nikola and Elizabeth want from us?”

  “Who knows? Just about anything,” Marcus answered. “I mean, with their multiple powers and The Book, they could do whatever they want. We weren’t exactly invited here as guests. It can’t be good.”

  “That part I know,” I sighed. “Marcus! Your brain phone! Have you used it to contact anyone yet? Do it!”

  “I’ve been trying for the last few minutes, ever since I woke-up. The problem with this power is... I can’t tell for sure if the messages are received.”

  “They always are, unless Elizabeth can block it somehow. Try me,” I suggested.

  Marcus closed his eyes and tried to project a message. “Anything?” he asked, after a few seconds had passed.

  “It doesn’t seem to be working, but maybe she’s done something to me so I can’t hear you anymore. Keep broadcasting. Tell them we’re about an hour out of the city and that Elizabeth’s house seems to be secluded and that there is a huge block wall built around a twenty acre property that has two stone houses on it, one big and one small. Oh, and tell them that there is some sort of a shield around the property from that Witch, Drew,” I rattled off the details.

  “Got it. I’m sending a message to all of them now. It just doesn’t feel right. It’s like I’m throwing mail into a deep black void.”

  That’s exactly what you are doing, darling.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  Marcus stood up and spun in a circle, looking around the room. “You heard that too?”

  I am borrowing that lovely power of yours. I like it. Sending out my own personal brain messages... In fact, I think I love it.

  “Elizabeth?” we both said aloud.

  Who else, darling? Although I tweaked it just a bit. Your power is so much better when I can hear responses. Too bad I can only borrow it while you are contained in The Red Room. Nikola is such a dear; he created that room just for me.

  “Is that why we are here?” Marcus asked. “So you can borrow my power.”

  Got to sign off now. I’ll get back with you in a few.

  “Wait!” I screamed. “Why am I here? I have no powers. You said I was valuable. What makes me valuable?”

  “Elizabeth!” Marcus yelled out.

  But we heard no response from Elizabeth. I walked back to where Summer lay sleeping and slumped down to the ground. I rested my back against the chaise, and my gown billowed around me. My head ached. I reached up to start pulling the pins out from my hair. I let it loose, releasing the tension.

  “I’ve never liked that Witch. Never. You boys, and Catherine, were always so easily pacified and forgiving of her. She’s rude, sneaky, and apparently evil. So, I told you so!” I shouted.

  “I concede, without further argument. Elizabeth is officially no good,” Marcus sighed heavily and leaned up against the wall, running his hands through his hair.

  “Aaahh! I hate this,” I grumbled.

  “She said Nikola, the man you just told me is the Caster, created The Red Room. That means there’s gotta be a spell on this room that is transferring my power over to her. Do you think she just borrows the one she wants, or are they all gone?” he wondered.

  “Light a fire in the fireplace and see,” I suggested.

  Marcus brought his hand, palm up, eye level and squinted. He pursed his lips, as he concentrated on making a flame. After a moment, I noticed a bead of sweat drip down the side of his face and his palm began to shake.

  “It won’t work,” he said, flinging his hand down to his side.

  “I guess that means Elizabeth can throw fireballs now.”

  “This bites!” Marcus was infuriated.

  “I wonder how many other Witches she has kept here, borrowing their powers. The scary thought is - what does she do with everyone when she’s done?” The very thought made me shiver in fear.

  The Red Room was quite bare, large but bare. Other than the chaise by the fireplace, and the table in the center of the room, there were no furnishings. The chaise that Summer rested on was covered in faded red velvet and had black pedestal legs. The table reminded me of an old butcher’s block. It was long, wooden, and looked more like a kitchen island than a table. It was the only non-red item in the room. The floors were concrete, stained a blotchy reddish brown, and the walls were the same crimson red as the outside of the door. The fireplace was made of red brick. The Red Room was definitely red.

  I walked over to the table, which held the single light in the room, picked up the candle, and brought it to the fireplace. I held the flame to the firewood lying in the hearth. I watched as the logs began to crackle and pop as the wood ignited. The fire began to grow, and the warmth of the blaze hit me. It spread across my skin and gave me a moment of comfort.

  A small sound escaped from Summer’s lips. She stirred in the slightest of ways. “When do you think she’ll wake up?” I asked
Marcus.

  “You, a couple minutes. Me, a couple hours. Her? I’d guess a couple days, maybe more,” Marcus shrugged. “Unless the Wicked Witch decides to wake her up before the sleep wears off on its own.”

  Time passed with agonizingly slow speed. Marcus didn’t want to accept that his firepower was gone, or any of his powers for that matter. He kept trying to message me and to light a fire, to no avail. He wasn’t able to test his third power because he had no control over the flashes that were received when an item was misplaced within the area.

  My mind was racing, going over various scenarios, trying to figure out what Elizabeth wanted with us. I imagined ways that the three of us could escape, either by stealth or through battle, but the outcome never seemed to end in our favor. I kept a close watch on Summer and knew, without a doubt, she needed to wake up. There was no way Marcus or I could carry her around, and we didn’t have the skills to make her float through the air.

  I knew that I couldn’t give up hope, because hope is one thing that carries warriors into battle. If they didn’t believe in a favorable outcome, they would never fight the fight. I was readying myself for whatever was thrown my way. I had to get Summer back to her mother, Marcus back to Eve, and me back to Lincoln and my family!

  Several hours passed by, before we heard another word from Elizabeth. Look alive people, she broadcast into our heads, and seconds later we heard the door unlock.

  Elizabeth threw the door open and paraded in. Drew trailed at her heels. Nikola casually strolled behind them, black eyes shining, clutching a large book close to his chest. I knew immediately that Nikola carried The Book of Spells. Marcus and I shot each other a worried glance when we noticed it. They all looked ready for action.

  “Andrew, darling, put a barrier around the girls.” Elizabeth smiled at me as she said the words.

  “I can’t do soundproof you know,” he replied. His voice held a hint of annoyance, which made me wonder how Elizabeth put up with it.