by Leela Ash
"But why me, and why Andrea?"
The figure paused before continuing.
"Because you are the guardians of the runes, and like your ancestors that came before, it must be your line that continues to thrive and lead the way. There are dark forces that are at work here that would harm the ones you love. You must be strong Alex and keep Andrea and all that are yours safe and secure. You need to be strong and ready for what is to come. It won't be easy."
"But what and when? If I don't understand then how can I help?"
"You know more than you allow yourself Alex. You have been fighting against your ancestors ever since you arrived here and now you need to stop. It was them that sent me to you, to help you understand your role in all of this. They are watching you."
Alex quickly looked around the Abbey and shivered; it was as if a hundred beady eyes watched him silently out of the shadows.
"There will be a battle and that much I do know. It will take place in the near future but I cannot give a date. But you will know, if you allow yourself to accept and relax, then you will sense the change approaching and can prepare. Now go to Andrea and your daughter and be with them, they cannot manage this without you.”
9.
It was good to feel his arms wrapped around her again. The winter had been too long and his silence and detachment had made it seem longer; and definitely colder.
They walked home hand in hand as Elizabeth ran ahead, full of the excitement of the evening and her head full of stories.
She was soon fast asleep in her own chamber and Andrea and Alex sat by the open fire as Alex poured mead into two silver goblets. The atmosphere between the two had been relaxed, but had now become suddenly awkward and they almost felt shy of each other.
He handed her a cup.
"I would rather have a pint any day. I'm not too sure about this mead stuff that the monks make. It's pretty awful and it tastes like medicine, but I suppose it hits the spot?"
She smiled.
"I know what you mean. I could kill for a large glass of Malbec - now if we were over in France and not Scotland then maybe even in 1654 we could have had a decent drink. I know what you mean about this stuff. The bitter herbs and honey are a funny mix."
She screwed her face up as she sipped the dark liquid.
Stepping over to stand behind her, he put his hands onto her shoulders and started to massage them.
"I'm sorry Andrea. The way I've behaved over the last few months is unforgivable."
"But understandable all the same Alex. I'm not sure that many people would have coped to suddenly finding that they had been transported back in time to the 1600’s."
"But you did, and your grandmother before you."
She looked into the flames; it had been a while since she had thought about her grandmother Betty. She had been the one to start all of this and Andrea wondered how she had felt on that day, the first time she had found herself in a different time.
"I felt just as bewildered as you did. The one thing that kept me going was Alexhander MacDonald. I fell in love. After that, the time and place was of little consequence. As long as we were together nothing else mattered."
She looked sadly into the fire.
"Do you miss him?"
“What do you mean? You are him. Well, almost."
Alex frowned. "But I'm not am I, not really; like you’re not really Andra. I keep having these memories, things that must have happened to Alexhander, but I'm not him. I'm Alex."
"Alexhander was your ancestor. I can't explain it either but it is almost as if I can feel Andra's presence around me, like a ghost, but on the inside."
She looked at Alex and he was deep in thought.
"A penny for them?"
He struggled to speak, his voice thick with emotion.
"I just wonder whether it is really me that you love or Alexhander."
Andrea stood up and put her arms around him.
"Oh Alex, you are a funny one. How can you be jealous of a man that has been dead for nearly 500 years? I did fall in love with Alexhander, he was a good and true man, and you are the same. Maybe we do embody our ancestors; something remains of us in the next generation after we are gone? Geraldine always talked about the cycle of life and death, birth and rebirth. The true reincarnation of the soul."
He smiled and held her tightly. He didn't really understand; how could he?
Her body was soft and warm and soon his lips found hers. It had been too long.
Her lips felt the same, soft and submissive against his. Her body too, molding against his, the soft contours fitted easily against his muscular frame.
It had been way too long and the months of longing and yearning bubbled to the surface as he greedily grabbed at her and pulled her to him. There was nothing he could do to alter the situation, but whatever was due to come, then it would be better if they faced it together. His hands squeezed her soft buttocks; not as firm as the ones he loved to fondle back in the future, but this was a softer and more mature Andrea and he loved how she felt in his arms. He could feel her passion start to rise as she pushed herself into him.
It had been a long time since she had been enveloped against his strong and muscular body; the flatness and firmness of his abdomen; his muscular shoulders and chest where she could lay her head and feel as if nothing could harm her.
Pulling her down onto the floor beside the fire they lay side by side; time did not matter here. Alexhander and Andra; Alex and Andrea; it was of no consequence; the two entwined and all was one.
He could not stop looking at her in the fire’s glow. It was almost as if he had forgotten how beautiful she was. Her brown eyes flickered with the flames reflection sparkling in their depths. Her hair was long and loose and curling around her shoulders and he wound a stray curl around his fingers. Despite the few silver strands she still looked like a young girl and he stroked her cheek tenderly. His passion ran high, but he did not want to rush this moment and he let his fingers trace the delicate lines of her face and neck and down onto her breast. Alex had become used to the medieval clothing and although at first he had felt ridiculous, he had now found a freedom and a certain masculinity that had seemed lost in the modern world of jeans and trainers. He thought that he cut quite a dash in the leggings and breeches he wore on a daily basis. It was the same for Andrea. He loved the feminine lines of the gowns that she wore, the ones that accentuated the breasts without being too revealing; something both modest and girlish about them.
He pulled on the fastening at the bosom of her gown. It laced downwards like a corset and his fingers tingled with anticipation as the material quickly loosened, freed from its constraints. Her breasts spread out of their tight confinements, the soft, white flesh spilling over the material like fresh, warm dough.
His hands cupped the ample mounds and he could feel her heart start to beat more quickly. He soon found the hard and erect nipple and pulled down the material to expose the bare breasts that lay quivering in time to her quickening breath.
Leaning over her frame, he buried his head against her softness and breathed in her gentle perfume; the tender and lingering scent of lavender and rosemary, fresh and so much more of a turn on than the expensive and manufactured perfumes of the modern day. It did not hide her own natural scent but rather enhanced it; a mix of soft musk and a primitive, almost earthy smell.
Andrea moved beneath his weight, his tongue causing her to squirm as he sucked and licked at her breasts. They had not been close for months; he locked in a ridiculous reality that he could not come to terms with. Wherever Geraldine was, she must have known and had come back to save them from that most difficult of all evils; themselves.
His cock was aching to push inside her soft flesh and he pressed his groin against her and moaned gently. Releasing his weight he pulled the gown over her stomach and hips and over her legs until she lay in the white cotton of her underclothes. He could have ripped the garment from her body straight away; he had never been
so aroused. The sight of the pretty white cotton layer brought out a feeling that was both protective and sexual at the same time. Lifting the hem of the garment he pulled it high above her thighs, revealing the dark triangular mound between her legs. She did not wear any panties and the sight almost made him cum. Parting her legs with his hands, his fingers strayed to the softness of her thighs. She was already damp, aroused by his intimate touch. His fingers slipped easily into her wetness, probing into her depths as she arched her body towards him.
His tongue found her clitoris and she almost shouted out in pleasure, as he lightly licked over the firm, pink, sensitive bud.
He could hold back no longer and standing up he pulled down his breeches and leggings, his manhood erect and jumping from its constraints in one swift movement.
Andrea watched him and gasped at his naked form, she had almost forgotten how big he was and she felt an ache between her legs as she yearned for him to take her.
Soon he was pressing between her legs, the head of his cock pushing against her, seeking her soft and inviting opening.
With one thrust he was inside of her and he felt the soft body go rigid beneath him. Alex had never felt so alive, as he plunged every inch deep inside, until her body was flush against his, and she lay totally impaled by his magnificent cock.
Andrea could feel his length inside of her; throbbing and twitching as he ached to release his pent up emotion.
His eyes were like slits as she looked up at him, he seemed barely conscious as he started to thrust against her, forcing his full length into her, watching her own pleasure rise with his, until they were both lost in their passion.
Afterwards they slept deeply by the fire, locked in each other’s arms and safe within their own love; if only for a short while.
10.
The days, weeks and months that followed passed quietly by. Alex managed to find a routine in the strange terrain of his ancestors and slowly he too settled into a rhythm with the land. He watched the sunsets and the day breaks with a new wonder that had been lost in the modern world, and felt his own body change and react to the seasons.
It was only once summer had almost passed that he awoke one morning with a start. He had dreamt that a small black bird was trapped in their room and in its panic had flown into the walls. Crashing its tiny frame again and again against the unforgiving stonework, blood and feathers smeared across the surface until the tiny creature finally fell lifeless onto the floor. Alex had gone over to pick up the poor dead thing but as he approached he had seen the tiny beadlike eye open and look at him before flying into his face like a great black claw to peck at his eyes. He had awoken at that moment, his heart racing and a bead of sweat running from his forehead.
Andrea murmured quietly but slept on as Alex silently moved from the bed and over to the window. Something was not right; he could sense it. The summer was just starting to lose her fade and the late August roses looked blousy and out of place in the still of the morning; an old face not looking so bright in the cold light of day. The sea looked cold and glassy and an eastern wind was starting to rob the trees of their leaves.
He could hear the wind whistling under the eaves and down the chimney and out through the fireplace. It seemed to be whispering to him, warning him.
Alex would have laughed at all of these things back in the modern world, but here he was surrounded by superstition and folklore. The people on the Island lived out their lives in the shadows of such omens and visions - daily phenomena that he hardly noticed in the city. Back home there had been too much pollution in the air; not by poisons and toxins but by the unnatural sounds and waves; the radio and television waves, mobile phone signals and microwaves and goodness knows what else to distort the mind and prevent the truth from being heard. There the gentle sounds of nature and the pulsating of the universe were blocked. Here, in this quite place, he could hear it all.
Yet now the sounds seemed to disturb him, upset his newly found equilibrium; what could they mean?
As he gazed across the vista he thought he saw a figure walking next to the Abbey. Perhaps it was Geraldine, come to give him more words of wisdom?
Without hesitation he quickly pulled on his clothing, and with a quick glance at his sleeping wife, headed outside.
The wind had whipped up more than he had first imagined and he pulled the collar of his cloak more firmly around his neck as he crossed over the track and headed for the Abbey, austere and grey in the morning light.
The figure had vanished and he supposed he would find her inside like before and hastened through the entrance.
All was dark inside; the light had not quite filtered through the magnificent leaded windows to the east and he stood in the shadows and quietly called out her name.
“Geraldine. Geraldine, are you there?”
At first there was no sound, only the wind winding around the main tower and a shuffling in the roof space; bats probably, or small birds nesting. He shivered at the thought of his dream and walked slowly forward as he called out her name over and over again.
He looked around at the sound of a door closing behind him and could make out a figure wrapped in a dark cloak, standing in the shadows. It made no move and slowly he made his way towards where it stood.
“Geraldine?”
At the sound of the name a white hand reached out of the cloak and pulled back the hood. It was not his beloved grandmother.
The face was the most striking he had ever seen. He hesitated to call it beautiful for there was something remotely evil in its perfection. It was the eyes that captured him the most, the emerald green, cat-like slits that widened as they took in the man that stood before them. The full and sensuous lips smiled at him and parted slightly to reveal a set of perfect white teeth, like a set of pearls gleaming in the shadows.
Alex shivered, there was something of the animal about her and he could feel his hackles rise.
“Alexhander, my dear brother, it is so good to see you again.” her deep and throaty voice purred across to him.
Opening his mouth, he tried to protest that he was not her brother and that he had never seen her before, but he stopped before he could finish as a myriad of different memories flooded his mind until his head was full of her.
“Helena!”
The unfamiliar voice tripped off his tongue, as if he had always known it to be so.
Holding out her slender hand, her eyes twinkled back at him.
“Dear brother, I thought you didn’t recognize me for a moment? Perhaps it is the shadows. But come out into the light, the sun is rising and has started to shine through the great eastern window. Look!”
His eyes moved to the window as the first rays of sun started to illuminate the multi-colored glass, bringing to life the Saints and angels depicted there.
Helena stepped forward, raising her arms as if to welcome the new day.
“Isn’t it supreme my brother? Can you not feel the energy? The power of the universe - and soon it will be ours to command.”
She laughed, with a voice like the sound of rain as she danced and twirled in the aisle.
“I thought you were dead.”
The memory of Alexhander’s hands around her throat surfaced to his mind and he could almost feel her last dying gasps between his fingers.
The dancing and the laughter stopped.
Without the smile her face looked cruel, the lack of warmth making the beautiful face almost mask-like.
She walked up close, her face inches away from her brother’s, her voice now rasping as she almost spat out the words.
“Did you really think that you could kill me my brother, after all that you have witnessed here? You for one should know better. Like you, I have my saviors, my ghosts from the future you might say. As you see, I did not die dear brother, quite the opposite. Although I can still feel your fingers tight upon my throat.”
Her eyes flared with anger at the memory before she took control of her emotions once again and the
green orbs narrowed into slits.
“Of course I forgive you dear Alexhander. You were under the spell of that simple bitch Andra and were doing your best to protect her. But now I am back brother, and I am stronger and more powerful than you will ever know. Come and join me and we can reign supreme, as was foretold. We are only fulfilling our destiny after all.”
Alex thought back to the words of Andrea and Geraldine. There had been an ancient prophecy about two siblings that would save the world, but she was wrong, it was not Alexhander and Helena that the prophesies had foretold. It was his own child, and the one yet to be born.
He looked over at her. The woman was mad, that much was obvious, but he was wary of her and did not trust her.
“Andrea is my wife Helena, and I will do my best for her and Elizabeth.”
Helena looked back almost in disgust.
“Ah the child yes, I had almost forgotten her. But do not worry about them Alexhander, they are nothing to us. Our bond is stronger than any other. Here, hold my hand and feel the power within.”
Not wanting to antagonize the strange woman, he held out his hand to pacify her. Her grip was almost electric and as soon as his skin touched hers, he felt a giant wave of energy run through him, just as if he had received a massive electrical shock.
All he could see was Helena, her face and her eyes, until he was lost in their depths. He could see the universe spinning around him, the nebulas and asteroids spinning past as he raced through space and time.