My Link in Time (The Immortal Ones--Book Two)
Page 14
“Got it. Lulach is here with us. They’re all about a quarter of a mile away on foot. I flew here and then transformed into a mouse so I could sniff you out. I need to get back to them and let them know your location... and your situation.”
“Yes, hurry! Please hurry,” I pleaded.
“We’ll be back as soon as we figure out how the others can gain entry to the property. The shields are strong, but apparently not effective on small animals,” Lizabelle said.
I thought about what Elizabeth had yelled at Drew when we first arrived on her property. He had fallen asleep, and the shields were down.
“If you knock out the Witch, Drew, you knock out the shields,” I told her.
“Understood. Goodbye my friend.” Lizabelle kissed me on the cheek and shimmied down into her mouse form once again.
I watched as she scurried away and thought, Elizabeth had not built a better mousetrap!
****
chapter thirteen
ACTIONS TAKEN
The next time the door to The Red Room swung open, Elizabeth and Nikola marched in. Elizabeth, for once, did not seem to share in Nikola’s superior outlook. She looked extremely nervous, but still hopeful. Nikola had The Book of Spells tucked under one arm. In the opposite hand, he was balancing on its point, a gnarly looking long dagger that was spinning around (seemingly on its own) in the center of his palm. On his face was a smug look of complete satisfaction.
As I gave the weapon a second look, I decided it was more of a broad sword. It was nearly three feet in length, from tip to hilt. The blade had been pierced, carved, and sculpted into a man-made web of steel. The handle was a mixture of ebony, ivory, copper, and mother of pearl. It was very new, very ornate, and very ceremonial looking. As much as I admired the beauty of the piece, it scared me more than anything else ever had.
Andrew, it seemed, was not invited to this party.
“What, no Drew this time?” I asked. My nerves seemed to bring out my sarcasm.
“There are certain things that Drew just doesn’t need to know about, yet. He’s been witness to the power transference spell, twice now, but he’s never seen a Witch die. I haven’t decided when I will let him in on that little bit of information. He’s fairly new here, and I haven’t decided how long I plan on keeping him. Plus, I’d rather he have no knowledge of what our plans are with you and what the result will bring to me,” Elizabeth spouted.
I couldn’t think of any single way to respond to her statements, so I turned to Nikola and said, “Nice knife.”
“She is a beauty, isn’t she? I had her specially hand crafted, just for this occasion. When Elizabeth approached me with the idea of securing your Immortality for herself, I contacted the best sword maker on this planet and gave him the details and specific instruction for its inception. Each and every piece was infused with power before it was put into place. The blade has been pierced and carved so that your blood will flow through the blade as it goes deep into your flesh. Particles of your Immortal blood will be captured as I remove the blade,” Nikola smiled and his black eyes turned to flames, once again.
“You don’t expect me to cooperate with this plan of yours, do you?” I shook my head, and took a step back.
“No. But I don’t need your cooperation. Elizabeth is going to knock you out. Then, I’ll float you onto the table and tie you up before you can awaken,” he laughed.
And, that is exactly what they did.
*****
Drew yawned. Barbie was telling him some ridiculous story about the time her drugged out loser of a mother had tried to sell her to a crazed meth dealer. He closed his eyes and muttered to himself. He had heard this particular rant of hers at least ten times, and it never got any easier to listen to. It wasn’t as if he gave a damn. After the first time he’d heard it, he had decided that it was too bad “Momma” didn’t proceed with the transaction.
He slit his eyes open, leaned his head back, and peeked at the wall of weapons behind him. He seriously thought about taking one down and clubbing her over the head, like a baby seal. The thought made him smile.
Barbie annoyed him. Her voice precisely defined the expression Nails on a Chalkboard. He didn’t understand why Elizabeth wanted to keep her around. She was seventeen and should have manifested her first power already. His first appeared on his fifteenth birthday. Elizabeth kept saying that she expected great things from Barbie. Drew was beginning to doubt that the blonde bubble-head was a Witch, even if Elizabeth had professed that Barbie smelled like a wood fire, which according to Elizabeth was a true Witch’s scent. But he could never express his doubt to Elizabeth. She would yell at him, scold him like a child, and then his head would start to feel as if it was going to split in two.
“I got away from her just in time, you know?” Barbie babbled.
“Uh huh,” Drew responded.
“There’s no telling what that whacked out drug dealer would have done to me!” she continued.
“I know what I’d like to do to you,” Drew mumbled back, eyes still closed.
“What?”
“Um, nothing.”
“Oh... eeewwwwww! I think I just saw a mouse!”
“Good. Maybe it’ll invade your bedroom, crawl through your drawers, and leave mouse droppings all over your perfectly pink outfits,” Drew laughed.
“Oh gosh!” Barbie gasped. “What are you?”
Drew drowsily opened his eyes, gave her a scathing look of sheer annoyance, and spewed, “Would you just shut up for once!”
As soon as he got the words out, Drew felt a thud and everything went black. Lizabelle stood directly behind him in her birthday suit, with the exact same club in hand that seconds before he’d imagined beating Barbie with. The Shifter had knocked him out, cold.
“Are you going to hurt me next?” Barbie whispered and gave Lizabelle one of her wide-eyed stares.
“Not unless you plan on getting in my way. I want my friends back. Elizabeth kidnapped them,” Lizabelle answered.
“I won’t be a problem. I know where your friends are. If I help you, will you take me with you? Elizabeth never lets me leave, and it is so boring with just Drew and her to talk to. I really hate being here.”
“You will help me. I will get you out of this house. But after that, I make no promises.”
“Deal. That Summer girl is in the guest house. They told her to stay in one of the bedrooms. She does what she is told now, so you can go get her at any time. She won’t move an inch without instruction. The girl in the wedding dress and the other guy are in The Red Room with Elizabeth and Nikola. I talked to her through the door earlier. She said that her friend was sick. I don’t know what is going on in there. They won’t tell me anything!”
“My friends will be here in just a few minutes. Get me some clothes to wear. Jeans and a shirt will do,” Lizabelle said.
“Oh, I can do that.” Barbie’s eyes lit up.
She ran out of the room and returned not even a minute later with a deep V pink knit top, a white tank, a pair of jeans, and pink panties, all with the tags still on.
“Elizabeth won’t let me leave so I kinda developed an online shopping habit. It’s addicting. I didn’t bring you a bra cuz... well, you know,” Barbie said and looked from her larger, to Lizabelle’s smaller, chest.
“Thanks. I’m not really worried about breast support right now.” Lizabelle shook her head, as she quickly got herself dressed. “Help me tie him up,” she nodded toward Drew.
“Gladly,” Barbie giggled.
*****
By the time I started to shake off the sleep Elizabeth had thrown at me, I was on my back, on the butcher block table, hands tied above my head, and my ankles were tied together. The Book was on my stomach and Nikola was standing in front of it, carefully turning the ancient, yellowed, parchment pages. Elizabeth stood, facing him, on the opposite side of the table.
“You said you’d found it,” Elizabeth hissed.
Nikola slowly brought his head up, re
moved his eyes from The Book, and focused on Elizabeth. “Witch, do not try my patience. I will only put up with so much from you. The spell is here. You can’t understand, and there is no way to explain, the complexities of The Book of Spells. The spell must be arrived at. That is all I will say.”
“Well, arrive faster,” Elizabeth responded.
“Elizabeth,” Marcus choked from across the room, “leave her alone.”
“Silence, you pathetic creature. You can do nothing to stop me.” She sneered at him.
I turned my head in Marcus’s direction and grimaced as he attempted to stand. He struggled to sit up straight and tried to push himself up with his arms. But he had no strength, his legs wobbled, and he failed miserably. Marcus fell to the ground, hit his head on the concrete floor, and passed out.
“Marcus,” I whispered.
“You’re awake,” Elizabeth noted.
“You’re insane,” I stated.
“Every genius has been called a madman at some point in his or her life,” she surmised.
“I’ll stick with the latter.”
“Ah!” Nikola sighed. “Here we are. It’s just as I told Charity before. I must plunge the knife into the Immortal One, gathering a small portion of her blood. After which, the same knife must be thrust into you, dear Elizabeth. Then we make another cut in Charity and let her blood drain into your wound. This will heal you, and with any luck, make you Immortal in the process. Let’s begin, I am ready.”
“With any luck?” Elizabeth whispered.
“There are no guarantees in life, Elizabeth. You, more than anyone, should know that, given the number of lives you have ended,” Nikola told her.
Elizabeth stood up straighter and hardened herself. I watched her face as it transformed, from slight doubt, into steely determination. “I’ll be healed,” she said, “and hopefully Immortal. It is a chance worth taking.”
“Sit down and recline back,” Nikola instructed, pointing to the plush chair that was now right next to him.
I hadn’t noticed it before and wondered where it had come from and how it was brought into The Red Room so quickly. The numerous powers and skills, that these two beings possessed, were unfathomable. That thought sent a chill down my spine.
Nikola started chanting, in whatever ancient, secretive language a Caster uses to cast his spells, and the air in the room began to stir. I could feel it swirling all around me... blowing at my hair, the fabric of my dress, and caressing my cheeks. A strange tingling started in the pit of my stomach and began to radiate throughout my entire body until it felt like I had been plugged into an outlet. Electrical currents surged up and down my body, racing back and forth, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.
I looked at Nikola’s face, as the chanting grew frenzied and louder. The flames in his eyes danced with abandon. He lifted the dagger with both hands, raising it high above his head and shouted four more words, “Blood – For - Unending – Life!” Then he plunged the dagger into my chest, piercing my heart.
I made no sound with my voice, just an enormous, ragged, painful intake of air as I gasped with pain. My upper body rose a few inches off of the table and then I collapsed back down again. Nikola twisted the knife as he removed it. He turned to Elizabeth and repeated his actions, plunging the dagger into her heart as well. She cried out in agony.
After removing the dagger from Elizabeth’s chest, Nikola took my arm and made a deep incision, from the crook of my right arm all the way down to my wrist. He continued chanting, and the electric surge returned, flowing throughout my body with an even greater frenzy than before. Every millimeter of my skin prickled with an electric heat and the incision site was white hot. It burned.
I tried to instruct my body to heal itself, but it wouldn’t comply. The gash would not close, the blood would not stop flowing, and my skin could not knit itself back together. I felt I was doomed.
Nikola cut through the bindings at my wrists and moved my arm, positioning it so the blood that was draining out of me in an inexplicably precise straight line, began to pool in my hand, and then fall into Elizabeth’s wound. She sighed with relief, as the healing power of my blood began to work its magic. My limbs were frozen in place.
*****
While Barbie stayed in the house, keeping an eye on Drew, Lizabelle ran outside to the gate at the entrance of Elizabeth’s property. It was an enormous metal structure, resting on wheels and connected to a powerful motor. There were gears that would turn and slide the behemoth open and closed to allow for passage. But there were no bars or open slats, to allow one to see inside or outside the Witch’s property. The gate was one solid piece of steel.
Lizabelle found herself with no way to visually tell if the rest of the group had shown up yet. With Eve blocking the sound of their approach, not even the shuffle of footsteps on the hard desert earth could be heard. Yet, Lizabelle somehow knew they were waiting on the other side of the gate.
“Lulach, there is a side entrance about fifty yards to the right,” she addressed the being with the sharpest hearing. “Meet me there.”
Lizabelle ran over and punched the gate code, which Barbie had just given to her, into the keypad and swung the smaller gate open. Link, Eve, Oz, Catherine, James, Lulach, and Christopher walked in.
“Summer is in the guest house over there,” Lizabelle pointed to the smaller structure. “As I told you when I got back from seeing Charity, she is entranced. Charity and Marcus are in the main house, in The Red Room with Elizabeth and Nikola. I’ve knocked out the Witch named Drew, but he needs to be kept unconscious so he cannot use his shields or his barrier,” Lizabelle briefed them.
Link gritted his teeth with hard determination. He wanted Charity out of harm’s way immediately. “Well I’m going in. Just show me where she is.”
Lulach put a hand to Link’s shoulder. “We will enter the dwelling together. No rash decisions and no hero tactics on your part. I want no casualties.”
“Charity said that Marcus is near death. We need to move now!” said Eve.
“We will, but this is how we need to proceed... Link, Eve, Catherine, and I will go in to free Charity and Marcus. James and Christopher should get Summer from the guest house, while Lizabelle and Cozmo keep the Witch, Drew, restrained and unconscious,” Lulach explained. “Agreed?”
“Agreed,” they all responded.
“Lizzy dear, lead the way,” Oz said, grasping her hand.
James and Christopher broke off as the group neared the main house; they went off in search of Summer. The rest of them approached the open door where Barbie stood, wide eyed with wonder.
“Hurry,” she squeaked. “I just heard Drew moan.”
“Do you reside here?” Lulach asked her.
“What?” Barbie puzzled.
“Do you live here, dear child?” he rephrased his question.
“Sure, I guess so,” she shrugged.
“How long have you lived with Elizabeth and do you have another home?” he asked.
“I came here about four months ago. I haven’t got another home,” Barbie answered.
“Good. Then invite me in, so we can save our friends,” Lulach responded.
“Invite you?”
“Barbie, just say the words ‘please come in’ to him,” Lizabelle told her.
“Oh, okay. Please come in,” Barbie repeated the words.
“Thank you, child,” Lulach said, and he stepped over the threshold and into the house.
“Come this way. I really don’t want Drew to wake up and put that barrier around me. He’s done it before, you know?” Barbie whined.
As Lizabelle and Oz started to follow Barbie through the house, Lizabelle told the others, “There are weapons in the room where I tied up Drew. You might want to choose a few, to arm yourselves with, before going after Marcus and Charity. I don’t know if they’ll help, but any advantage...”
“Thanks, Lizabelle,” Link nodded his head.
Upon entering the room, Oz p
icked up the same club that Lizabelle had used to knock Drew out, and clocked the not quite conscious Witch across the head with it. “That,” he said, “is for Marcus. And that,” he swung the club over his head and then hit him a second time, “is for Charity. I’ll give you another one, for me, if you should stir again.”
Oz placed the club down on the desk that Drew was seated behind and leaned over, quite close to the now completely unconscious Witch’s ear. “I’d stay passed out, my friend, if you know what’s good for you,” he snarled. “My brother had better make it out of this alive.”
“Grab the keys out of his pants’ pocket. The red key opens the door to The Red Room,” Barbie advised them.
As Oz removed the keys and handed them to Lulach, Link looked at the wall of weapons. He chose a small sword for one hand and a pistol for the other. He also had the push dagger Charity had given him for Christmas with him. Catherine chose several throwing knives, holding a few in each hand. Eve and Lulach remained empty handed, weapons would be of little use to them. Eve had her powers and Lulach had his speed, strength, and his teeth!
“It’s the room at the end of the hall, the one with the red door,” Barbie told them.
“Save my brother,” Oz urged.
“We’ll get both of them out of there,” Link assured him as they walked out of the room.
Lulach led the way, with Catherine, Eve, and Link inches behind him. Eve used her powers to make their approach unnoticeable.
As Lulach turned the key in the lock, he addressed the three, “Surprise, and speed. Move fast, and hit hard. Now!”
****
chapter fourteen