Then something happened…
Something found us.
Behind the clouds in the night sky came a light which I saw reflected back at me in Lucius’ open eyes. He was looking right at it so what we saw, we saw together. I felt a tingling in my wrist and felt the power there mirrored by the Quarter Moon I saw in Lucius’ eyes. We let go of each other at the same time and Lucius took a step back where I couldn’t.
The spell was broken.
We both were motionless bodies painted naked in the Quarter moon’s light, with only our heavy breathing penetrating the stillness. We were panting at each other as though the very Gods had caught us creating a new sin. And that’s when we felt it. Being together that way was something that could have destroyed the very fabric of time, pulling at its seams until there was nothing left but the remains of what was once beautiful. It was the chance of something bigger for both of us and one second later it would have been ripped from us with nothing but one perfect moment to speak of. But what was one perfect moment in the sight of hundreds, thousands….millions of lifetimes all each with their very own perfect memories just waiting to be lived through.
This was what we both nearly just lost and each of us now knew it. Not just for me with Draven but even Lucius had his own chance at the happy forever after that was coming to him. All he had to do was wait.
And now he knew it wasn’t me he had to wait for…
It was his soul mate.
Chapter 56
Broken Time
I would have liked to say the next two weeks went past in a blur of time but that would have been a big fat lie. In fact, so much of a lie that I wouldn’t have been surprised if one of the Gods had struck me down with a bolt of lightning for speaking such bullshit!
But there was little I could do about it so I just had to suck it up and wait. However, it wasn’t as if nothing had happened in this time. In fact, lots of things had happened, just not in the whole ‘getting me closer to Draven’ side of things. I think the greatest change was between Lucius and I. After that fated night where we nearly crossed that invisible line, things had become…different.
Oh don’t get me wrong, he was still the same flirty bad ass he always had been, but it was the intensity that had calmed and been replaced by a playful friendship. It was as though that night he saw something in the very Cosmos that answered an unspoken question. When I saw that moon, I saw my life with Draven slipping away for good, but when Lucius saw that moon, he saw a life that he would never even have a taste of if we had made that last unforgiving step.
Now we had come to a mutual understanding and thankfully, he agreed to help me to find Draven, as he cryptically stated once that it was now in his best interests as well as mine. I tried to ask him what he meant by this, but other than a knowing smirk he didn’t answer me. So that is where he spent most of his time, in his lavish office doing what I could imagine was time spent searching for clues as to who had Draven and where they were keeping him.
Which left me in the hands of one naughty little Imp. But I wasn’t left completely clueless, for one, I found out from spending many days with Pip about the whole Martha elephant incident… all after getting my roots done of course.
This day was spent like most of my others, sat in her crazy apartment being bug eyed from the moment I stepped foot in her domain up until I left to go back to Lucius’. No wonder he told me he never went in there as it always left even his supernatural self with a colossal headache!
It was, what could only be described, what you could imagine if an amusement park’s funhouse and a wacky comic bookstore had a love child… this would have been Pip’s apartment.
There was everything from curtains made from hundreds of 80’s piano ties, Eiffel tower seats, a sofa made to look like a hamburger, with tomato, cheese and lettuce cushions and an actual old caravan painted bright pink, with lime green stripes parked in her living room. We even had tea in there one afternoon, and I must admit it took me back to last year sat in a winter wonderland, under a tree, drinking from strange cups.
However, this year was, unbelievably, even stranger when I found myself sitting down inside the caravan whose interior was covered in lush green grass. It still had in it the bench seats and table in between but all that and more was growing and I wondered if she had to trim it often. I had to laugh as at the centre of the table was a bunch of daisies growing there instead of being in a vase.
The tea set was another thing entirely. In keeping with the woodland theme the set consisted of a ceramic flower and toadstool set. The tea pot, being the odd part out, was in three tiers, starting with the biggest at the bottom made to look like a crazy multi coloured townhouse. The front door was stamped with the word ‘Liquid Bliss’ and held the brewing tea. The second ‘floor’ was a window stamped ‘Milky Piss’ and the last one was the smallest teapot with a tiny clock tower stamped ‘Sugary Kiss’.
They all had a spout and when pored depending on the level you held it at, first came the tea, then the milk and lastly the sweetener. Thankfully for me, Pip held her finger over the end of the sugar so that I wouldn’t get any. You would have thought by this description alone that this would have been the weirdest parts but no, this honour went to the two pet teacup pigs she had sat in giant striped and spotted cups with us.
“Adam wanted to call them Belly and Scratch.” She informed me as she petted them lovingly.
“Aww is that because they love having their bellies scratched?” I’d asked innocently as she handed one of them over to me. I cradled the cutest little bundle in my arms just as she shook her head and then covered his big ears with her hands. She nodded for me to do the same to the girl I held. Only when they could no longer hear us did she whisper,
“No, it’s because Adam loves Pork Belly and I love Pork Scratchings.” On hearing this I just closed my eyes and shook my head trying not to laugh.
“So, what did you name them instead?”
“Oh, well this little dude is ‘Over’ and his girlfriend over there is ‘Left’” Now at this I did burst out laughing.
“You named your pet pigs, Left and Over!” I said between the snorting I couldn’t help.
“Yeah and if you carry on sounding like them I will start calling you ‘There’”. I couldn’t help it, at this we both burst in to a fit of more giggles!
After we had calmed and were drinking our tea, still with ‘Left’, ‘Over’ on our laps and me being called ‘There’ for the rest of the afternoon by Pip, she started to tell me the story of what happened with Martha the Elephant.
The story began with Pip bidding on Martha and Adam bidding against her with the intention of donating her to a zoo, as sanctuaries in this time period we’re unheard of. Pip obviously wanted to keep her as a pet but no surprises there. However, as the bidding went on, some of the men carrying through a large suspended gong from China tripped and as the gong hit the floor it scared the Elephant.
Pip, being Pip, charged after Martha in an attempt to calm her down (although offering her a Fry’s chocolate bar wasn’t ever going to lead her on the road to success). The elephant charged at her making Adam lose control over Abaddon. He erupted into his other self and in doing so, not only killed the elephant accidently but also set the building on fire. Hence, why Adam was now banned from all Lega Nera events. I had to say that I felt for him after hearing this story and found out that to make it up to Pip he bought her an Aldabra giant tortoise that she named Duncan, which she later changed to Michelangelo after her favourite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character.
Unbelievably, I met ‘Mikey’ who was 174 years old and had not a fondness for pizza but for donuts… with jam of course. But with Mikey also came a rat called Splinter, a pet hedgehog called Shredder and a yellow canary called April. Going into Pip’s home was a bit like a petting zoo, only instead of the usual enclosures you would expect to find, these creatures were living it up in utter luxury. April lived in a miniature New York apartment, complete w
ith kitchen decorated in bird poop. The rat lived in a mock Japanese style sewer and had been taught to walk a rope ladder on command. It was without a doubt crazy, but crazy beautiful as it was obvious she absolutely adored her pets.
The rest of my days spent with Pip brought about a magical madness that can only be described as like being friends with someone related to Willy Wonka. Her living room was cut into two different sections. The first was obviously Adam’s and looked like an old English library/office. Dark wood panels matched the dark wooden floors and the deep red leather in the furniture. A massive oak desk carved with eagle legs that had big brass claws which pierced the floor boards. Old books and classical paintings from the renaissance period added to the feel of the place. It felt more like this space belonged to a professor of some kind, not the right hand to a Vampire King.
But now Pip’s side of their home was what made me drag my gaping mouth around the place. There was everything from shelves of old cartoon action toys, every colour of Carebear, lamps made from her ‘own’ chest x-ray, doors covered with Barbies glued to them (all wearing evening dresses) to a giant black swan that used to be a lake boat now converted into a fluffy seating area.
The swan (who I was told was called Fanny) sat in the centre of the room inside a large ornate gothic pool. There was a little bridge that you could walk over to get into the ‘swan sofa’. Once in there, Pip would flick a switch and what I first thought was yellowish water started to pour from the swans open mouth. Then I saw her grab a glass from a little cupboard under the seat and fill it up to take a swig of what she informed me was actually white wine. Needless to mention, that when I re-crossed the bridge I could no longer do so in a straight line.
But putting aside the tables that looked like pints of dripping blood and the fang shaped fairy lights that covered the entire ceiling of her bathroom or even the bar area set up like a freaky mad scientist’s lab, complete with cocktails in beakers, vials and test tubes, I still found myself with plenty to talk about and always someone to listen.
In fact, it was at the end of my two weeks waiting and whilst I was watching Pip painting her nails we discovered something important. See, while all this time was going by, I was left to do nothing whilst Lucius tried to track down Draven’s whereabouts. This was the most frustrating part of my journey so far and even more so than being captured and held in that disgusting tower. At least then I was being held against my will and had no other choice in the matter but now, as I watched Pip draw little miniature ice cream cones, I was close to tearing my hair out!
I had brought along with me my Ouroboros book in the hopes that my shadowed knight would once again try and contact me. Or even the Oracle, who after all this time had still not sent me one word. In fact, the only person I had heard from briefly though Lucius was that Jared knew I was safe and in turn I knew he and all his men…including Marcus, were all fine. I did, however, get the impression that Jared had tried to see me but Lucius wasn’t allowing it. I tried to talk to him about it one day only to get shut down with ‘He knew best’.
So here I sat, on one of Pip outrageous day beds that was a big round iron nest, complete with egg shaped cushions and long foam brown twigs. If anything, by the end of this journey, I would be surprised if the urge to go out and buy a damn bird would ever leave me!
But then it hit me as I was playing with my bracelet absentmindedly that the next quarter moon had passed by two weeks ago and I had forgotten to ask the book what it meant. I ended up scaring Pip into giving herself a wonky cone as I squawked something in my excitement at finally having something to do.
“Hey, I just messed up mint choc chip!” She complained with a cute winey pout. I leant over, kissed her nose and said,
“You’ll get over it!” Then I quickly opened up my book and looked around for the time.
“Is there a clock in this mad house?” She gave me a smile that screamed evil genius and tapped her lip ring before she said,
“I will give you a clue.” I rolled my eyes and said a warning,
“Pip!”
“No, no, it will be fun, trust me, I am a Jedi master and a member of the Browncoats.” She said proudly sitting up and propping an egg behind her…although thankfully not a real egg given the amount of punching she did to get it into shape!
“Eh…Browncoats?” I asked knowing like any conversation with Pip, we were getting of course quicker than a rally car.
“Oh My Bejesus and Kentucky fucking chicken! Tell me you have watched Firefly before?!” She had her hands over her ears as if waiting for my answer was going to physically hurt her.
“Umm…that would be a no.” I winced as I said it, knowing now the girl was going to put me through I don’t know how many hours of Firefly chatter and more than likely doing so whilst watching the entire show. She closed her eyes, put her pointed nails to her forehead like she had a migraine and shook her head for my shame.
“Er…Pip, can we try to focus here?” I asked after she still wasn’t moving.
“Fine! But only if you promise me one thing.” I had a bad feeling about this.
“Go on.”
“Firefly marathon after your little book wig out.” I rolled my eyes and said,
“Pip, if it will get me the damn time, then I will even go out there and buy myself a damn Brown coat!” I said shaking the book in hopes of showing my urgency. Note to self…next time Pip says something weird, just don’t ask and pretend to know what she is talking about!
“Oh don’t worry about that, I have plenty…did you know that when they cancelled the show, loads of people set up a charity and they…?”
“Pip, can we possibly leave out the Browncoats for now and focus on my little ‘wig out?’” I asked making quotation marks around what she liked to call my dilemmas.
“Oh right…ok, so this is your clue…” I groaned out loud and stuffed my head in another one of the egg pillows I had on my lap.
“You can play them in the round or play them in the air, but these little suckers aren’t going anywhere, for they tell me the time when I listen to their rhyme, but thank the rock God they don’t chime.”
She finished off her cryptic poem with a massive grin and then it fell away just as quickly when ‘We will Rock you’ by Queen blasted from the far wall.
“Ah shit!” She moaned as I turned my head to find a massive wall display that was actually a wall sized clock. It had twelve records all fixed in a circle and two mounted guitars in the middle that acted as the arms of the clock. It was pretty damn awesome and it also showed me it was two o’clock in the afternoon. I had to giggle as I recalled her riddle.
“That was pretty good.” I told her which soon had her smiling again.
“What time does the book wakey wakey eggs and all that jazz?” Pip asked nodding at my leather bound friend.
“5:36.” On hearing this she bounced up and down on her egg.
“Coolioso, then we have three hours and thirty…ummer lingy thingy ding dongs…” She turned back round to count and finished,
“Thirty four and half minutes to introduce you to the delicious Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds…let me just go and get my coats and guns.” And with that she jumped from the nest, nails long forgotten and this Captain ‘Mal’ in the forefront of her mad mind.
So there I was, hours later, sat in Pip’s theatre room in a huge armchair that was made from thousands of teddy bears glued together in the shape of a giant teddy bear. Pip was sat next to me coiled in a giant stuffed toy snake whose tail acted as a foot rest and we were both wearing long brown jackets and had replica guns from the show in our laps. To say in the beginning I felt like a colossal idiot was an understatement, but then I could only be thankful I wasn’t watching Star Wars in a Chewbacca outfit …! Oh yeah and I was now officially addicted to Firefly.
Now, as I got into watching space cowboys adventures set in the year 2517, I was shocked to find Pip’s Mickey Mouse alarm going off. She clicked her wristwatch off and paused
the episode.
“Time to do your thing.” I nodded and handed my gun over to one of the bigger bears on the arm rest to take care of whilst I opened the book. I asked it to tell me about the third Quarter moon and when the next one was, which the Oracle said would lead me to Draven.
This was my answer:
On this third Quarter Moon, the Yellow Moonstone gives great insight into things yet to come. It supports the heart and stimulates the mind when making great decisions that will change the foundation to ones future. It aids those difficult choices, bringing out the best in people and increasing loving energies needed in Divine situations where the mind is sometimes overruled by lust. Worlds maybe divided and time may seem against you but what is time to a clock with no hands.
The next Quarter Moon breaches your skies tomorrow evening after long Goodbyes.
I jumped up out of my seat after I read the last line and stood there panting as if I could barely breath.
“What is it…what did it say, Toots?” Pip asked with a quiver to her voice that was full of concern. I turned back round to face her and simply said,
“That I will see Draven again.” Her large green eyes widened with excitement and strangely a bit of worry I didn’t understand.
“When?” I bit my lip at her question and felt a single tear fall before I said…
“Tomorrow night.”
Chapter 57
Lakeside Plans
After quickly re-reading the book’s words again and again, I jumped from my seat, ready to storm the castle which was Lucius’ city home in search of the only man who could help me. Problem was I found I had to wait until nightfall when he woke up. This was quite possibly one of the most frustrating moments of my life and Pip could do little to get me to stay calm. She must have stopped me half a dozen times from running into his room and jumping on his bed like an over excited kid at Christmas.
The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga) Page 65