Legacy of the Watchers Series Boxed Set: Books 1-3

by Nancy Madore

  “Of course,” Nadia replied quickly.

  “Who can know what’s in the mind of a woman?” asked Gordon. “I sometimes wonder if women know themselves! It’s frustrating for men. You should cut him some slack for trying to be sensitive to your needs. I’m sure he wanted to throw you down on the bed and ravish you twenty different ways…” Gordon paused here, as if he were actually contemplating the twenty different ways himself. His eyes seemed to grow hot and Nadia could feel herself blush again under his heated gaze. “What man wouldn’t?” He picked up his beer and gulped the rest of it down. “Thank god there are laws!” he announced with a little belch.

  Nadia couldn’t help laughing. Gordon laughed with her. “Men!” he exclaimed in mock disgust, shaking his head.

  “Why’d you do it?” Nadia asked, suddenly serious. “Ornias, I mean. Why did you take him?”

  It seemed as if Gordon wasn’t going to answer her at first. He just stared at his glass for a long moment. “I couldn’t let it end this way,” he said finally, looking up. “After all that we did to you…and everything you gave up…” he let the statement dangle there, in midair, while he gazed at her with his dark, expressive eyes.

  Nadia was touched. “I think that’s why Will finally gave in too,” she said. “I think he knows what it’s like…the not knowing.”

  Gordon looked surprised. “He told you?”

  “This morning,” she said.

  Gordon nodded. “It’s hard to believe isn’t it? I mean, that he turned out the way he did after losing both parents like that!”

  Nadia just looked at him. Will never mentioned his mother. All he said was that his father had been charged with a terrible crime—something ‘horrible’—and that he’d been killed in prison before his case went to trial. She tried to think how to get the details out of Gordon. “Does Will believe his father was guilty?” she asked.

  “He never said,” replied Gordon. “But between you and me, I think he must have been. They both were. Otherwise, why was his mother still there when the bomb went off?”

  Nadia was finding it hard to breathe. “How many people were killed when the…bomb went off?”

  “Twenty three, including Will’s mother,” said Gordon.

  Nadia felt sick. She should have let Will tell her this himself, in his own time.

  “How old was Will?” she asked.

  “He was nine years old,” Gordon replied. “His father’s mother took him in and raised him from there.”

  “Is that why he…does this?” she wondered.

  “Could be,” said Gordon. “But then again, Clive and I are here, and we come from relatively normal families. I mean, my father is a respected doctor and an all-round good guy. And my mother’s a sweetheart.”

  “So what made you want to do this?” she asked.

  Gordon grinned. “I’m here for the adventure.”

  “And Clive?”

  Gordon groaned. “Sometimes I think Clive’s only here to torture me,” he said, and they both laughed.

  Nadia’s wine glass was empty. She got up, bent down and kissed Gordon’s cheek. “Thank you,” she told him fervently. “Thank you for Ornias…and for everything else too!”

  Chapter 14

  Delta Junction, Alaska

  Amanda sighed contentedly. Tommy was there with her, holding her in his arms. He had come after all—which meant that he really did care about her. She smiled, feeling safe and secure in his strong embrace. It was an almost too strong embrace, leaving her slightly breathless. She tried to gently wriggle herself out from under him, but he only pressed in closer.

  Awake now, Amanda tried to recall how Tommy got there. The last she remembered, she and Catherine had been lying together in Amanda’s bed, talking. When had Tommy come? And where was Catherine? Amanda tried to turn her head but it wouldn’t budge. Tommy’s weight was becoming oppressive, almost to the point of crushing her. Her lower limbs felt like they were still asleep. There was a tingling sensation running all up and down her legs and feet, as if they were being pierced by tiny needles.

  And then she noticed the static, steadily growing louder in her ears, and she knew that it wasn’t Tommy who was on top of her.

  Amanda tried to scream but nothing came out. She couldn’t even open her mouth. She had that same sensation she’d had before, of her lips being sewn shut. She desperately wanted to get away from whatever was pressing down on her but she couldn’t move. It was as if she were paralyzed; she had no control over any part of her body. Yet she could still feel her body. The tingling sensation was now creeping up over her torso and arms, and her heart was pounding so fast and hard that it was starting to hurt.

  Amanda tried to see around her in the dark, but she couldn’t even move her eyes. Looking directly in front of her, she could see little more than ceiling and walls. She had the sense that there was another person in the bed with her, lying beside her. Hope sprang up in her. It was probably Catherine! But she was just lying there, motionless, like a person deep in sleep—or dead. Amanda tried once again to scream, but not so much as a whimper made its way out of her tightly clamped lips. She strained, again and again, to move some part of her body, but every attempt failed. Tears of frustration ran down the sides of her face, tickling her ears, as the tingling sensation slowly crept up her neck.

  The thing was pressing down on her so vigorously now that she expected to hear the sound of her bones snapping at any moment. This must be what it felt like to be buried alive. The heaviness and the tingling must mean her blood wasn’t able to move through her veins. For some reason she thought of the Looney Tunes character, Wile E. Coyote, flattened on the road beneath a giant anvil, and could almost hear the mocking ‘beep beep’ of the Road Runner as he dashed by. The tingling was now moving up her face, taking the last of her breath, and she waited, both stunned and terrified, to be smothered to death.

  The static seemed to be getting louder. The pressure was unbearable. Why wasn’t she dying? Staring at the empty space above her, it suddenly occurred to Amanda that whatever it was must be happening inside her. As the tingling sensation filled her head it began to throb painfully. She wondered if she was having some kind of seizure, like an aneurism, or perhaps a stroke. That would explain why she wasn’t able to do anything but just lie there—like a vegetable.

  But just then Amanda realized that her body was moving. She was choking!

  Next to her, she felt Catherine move in the bed. “Are you okay?” Catherine murmured sleepily.

  Seemingly of its own accord, Amanda’s body sat up and turned in Catherine’s direction. Amanda opened her mouth to scream that no, she wasn’t okay, and to tell Catherine to call 9-1-1.

  “I’m fine,” said a voice that sounded strangely like her own, but could not have been her own because that wasn’t what she wanted to say. Her lips began moving again and she heard the same voice say—“Go back to sleep.” Then she felt her body arrange itself back on the bed, as if to do the same.

  An eerie sense of doom—real doom, like the kind one might feel upon watching a bomb falling directly overhead—settled over Amanda. The doom was so certain and so strong that it stamped out her will to fight against it. Hopeless and helpless, she succumbed to the inevitable. She was acutely aware that something had taken possession of her. She hadn’t really even had time to accept the concept of possession, but now there was no doubt. She felt regret that she hadn’t accepted it sooner—maybe she could have prevented it. Perhaps she could have gone to a priest. Or, at least purchased a Bible. Her fear had been real, but much too vague to promote real action. And now—what could she do?

  At least the tingling had stopped. But she had no control over her body. And yet, strangely, there was no longer any panic, racing heart or adrenaline. She felt no physical symptoms of her anxiety at all, just a sedentary kind of dread and a niggling sense of irritation caused by the ever present static.

  It occurred to Amanda that, disconnected as she was from her body, whate
ver was left of her—whatever was thinking these thoughts at this moment—was probably not connected to her physical self. Maybe this was her soul. Maybe that was the only part of her that the intruder couldn’t touch. Yes, this made sense. In fact, she had a strange conviction that this was what she was before she became Amanda—and it was what she would be when Amanda was no more. ‘Amanda’ seemed almost secondary to her now, in fact. She felt different. She was different. For the first time in her life, she was aware that she was something more than the creature her parents had called Amanda.

  So was the Amanda she knew—and loved so much—merely a temporary extension of this, her soul? Was Amanda just a random combination of genetics and environment that her soul had stumbled into? Had her soul lived other lives?

  The constant buzzing all around her made Amanda feel a little like a radio wave seeking a signal. Her thoughts were first distracted by the static and then slowly faded into nothingness. She thought about the individuals who had been her father and mother. Had they gone on to lead other lives after dying in that tragic car accident when she was still just a teenager? It suddenly occurred to her what a profound effect that must have had on her. And next her thoughts went to Tommy, so handsome and charming, with his cute southern drawl. Amanda and Tommy (she was starting to think of herself in the third person now) really did make a cute couple. Mandy and Tommy. Maybe too cute a couple.

  Amanda passed the night like a feather in the wind, being tossed about from thought to thought. She stumbled upon memories of this life and fleeting ideas of others. She let the thoughts come and go without interfering, lulled into a permanent trance by the noisy drone of static that engulfed her.

  Chapter 15

  Long Island, New York

  Nadia reluctantly opened one eye. There was a dull ache behind the other. The room was dark, but the digital clock on the bedside table told her it was already after nine.

  It took a few minutes for her memory to kick in. She was in a hotel room not far from her father’s house. She’d been drinking with Gordon until the wee hours of the morning. She had a brief flashback of their conversation—particularly the part about her and Will—and winced. The wine must have gone to her head.

  Will was already up and out. She sat up with a groan. Part of her wanted to stay in bed but the other part wanted to know what was happening. Reluctantly she got out of bed, showered and dressed.

  She found them in the hotel café, and stood in the doorway a moment, watching them, before approaching. They were deeply engrossed in conversation. She couldn’t help noticing that they were all attractive men, intelligent and full of life. They believed in what they were doing and they were doing what they loved—just like Nadia, before the kidnapping.

  Gordon noticed her standing there and waved her over. His look, as always, was respectful and admiring. There was no awkwardness in his manner. Nadia relaxed, grateful for his friendship.

  Will’s face lit up when he saw her. “I didn’t want to wake you,” he murmured affectionately, and she blushed, disarmed by the unexpected intimacy.

  “How long have you been down here?” she asked.

  “Not long,” said Will.

  The waitress came over to pour Nadia a cup of coffee and take her order. Nadia noticed that the others had already eaten.

  “I always feel like I’m three steps behind you guys,” she complained. “Like I’m slowing you down.”

  “You are,” said Clive.

  Nadia laughed. “How do you do it?” she asked. But she already knew the answer to that. They were the job, just like she used to be. It was their identity. Only her identity had been shaken—badly—and without it she felt like a tiny raft, completely lost and adrift on a stormy sea. Was that why she was so drawn to them? Was she hoping they could help her find herself again? “I mean, it’s like you can take ideas out of thin air and somehow turn them into reality,” she continued. “Djinn…Armageddon. I’m almost afraid to see what you’re going to come up with next.”

  Clive laughed. “You’ll have to talk to Ali Baba over there,” he said, pointing to Gordon.

  “All we’re doing is seeking truth,” said Gordon. “Like a doctor seeks a clinical explanation for symptoms. Whether he finds the explanation or not, the symptoms will still be there.”

  “I wonder,” mused Nadia, only half serious.

  Gordon shrugged. “Take D.C.,” he said. “That’s been categorized as an anonymous terrorist attack. There are myriads of events like that in history. People know something happened. They just don’t know what it was.”

  “Most people don’t want to know,” added Clive.

  “But how do you know that your version of what happened is real?” she asked. “How does anyone know what is real?”

  “That’s our job,” said Gordon, glancing meaningfully at Will. “To look beyond other people’s reality and find the truth.”

  “We can’t just sit around waiting for shit to happen and then ask why,” agreed Clive, also glancing at Will. Nadia had the impression that they weren’t really talking to her anymore, but continuing a conversation that began before she got there. She looked at Will, who gave her a reassuring smile. Had they been arguing about something when she came in?

  “You don’t think there’s anything here to find, do you?” she asked Will.

  “No,” he admitted. “I don’t. And I don’t want you hurt even more from us giving you false hope.”

  Nadia searched her mind for something—anything—that might prove him wrong. “But…what about Lilith?” she asked.

  Clive and Gordon exchanged smiles.

  “She’s probably not a real blonde,” remarked Clive. Nadia turned to Gordon for clarification.

  “Lilith’s the biggest issue right now,” he told her. “If Asmodeous didn’t send her somewhere else, why isn’t she here?”

  Nadia just stared at him.

  “Think about it,” he continued. “Why didn’t she try to take Asmodeous’ ring from me? I mean, after everything he gave up for her…”

  Nadia considered this. “But how could she have done that?”

  “Easy,” said Clive. “She could have found herself a body, killed Gordon and taken the ring. She and Asmodeous would be home free.”

  Nadia hadn’t thought of that.

  “Gordon had to be guarded around the clock until he turned over the ring,” said Clive. “And I can assure you that there wasn’t a single attempt to steal the ring.”

  “Clive was the one assigned to Gordon,” said Will. “It was his job to keep every woman away from Gordon.”

  “It was by far the easiest assignment I ever had,” said Clive.

  “And you…,” said Nadia, turning to Will with sudden dawning, “…were guarding me, in case Lilith tried to use my body!”

  “It was either gonna be Lilith or Will,” Clive added cheerfully. “Pick your poison.”

  Will shot Clive an exasperated look but he didn’t deny it. Nadia’s thoughts turned to that first night he came to her apartment, when it was over. She’d thought he was there to comfort her. That was the night their relationship began. She realized she was staring at him in disbelief.

  “You know I would’ve been there regardless,” he said. Nadia did know this, but his dismissive tone irked her. “And frankly, I never believed your father would consent to Lilith’s using you that way, and I think Lilith knew that too.” It was the first time Will had said anything positive about her father, and Nadia was instantly appeased.

  Just then the waitress brought Nadia her breakfast, and her attention was temporarily diverted by the food.

  “The point,” said Gordon, “is that Asmodeous must have given Lilith something else to do.”

  “Which raises the question…what could be more important to Asmodeous than his freedom?” said Clive.

  “How do you know she didn’t follow you to that dome in the desert where you keep the djinn?” asked Nadia. “Couldn’t she be waiting there for the right moment to
strike?”

  “We’ve set a trap for her if she approaches the area,” said Clive. “But she can’t enter the dome. No djinn can withstand the combination of metals it’s constructed from.”

  “I think she’s gone in an entirely different direction,” insisted Gordon. “If Asmodeous knew he wouldn’t have to submit to the ring, he would feel confident sending her somewhere else.”

  “Did you get anything back on those encrypted messages we found yesterday?” she asked.

  Will shook his head.

  “But we did get an interesting little tidbit on the guy who sent them,” said Clive. “You ready for this?” Nadia nodded. “‘E’ Blevins is dead.”

  Nadia gasped in surprise.

  “He’s been dead for almost a year,” said Gordon. “He was killed in a lab experiment gone bad.”

  Nadia tried to comprehend what this meant. “So...the person who sent those messages to my father this month…”

  “Wasn’t ‘E’ Blevins,” Gordon finished for her.

  “Do you know anything else about him?” she asked.

  “His full name was Ethan Blevins,” said Will. “He moved to Alaska from Ohio. He seemed like an ordinary enough guy.”

  “He was your typical computer geek,” said Clive. “Pasty skin, wire rims, pudgy, loved South Park and Taco Bell.”

  “How do you know all that?” asked Nadia.

  “It’s on his Facebook page,” said Gordon. “No one bothered to shut it down.” Gordon gestured to Will. “Might as well show her.”

  Will handed Nadia his phone. On the screen was the picture of a young man, mid to late twenties, who looked exactly as Clive described him. He was moderately overweight, with doughy looking skin and dirty blonde hair that had been cut very close to his head, military style. He was smiling self-consciously for the camera.

  “Though he bragged constantly about working at T.D.M.R., he never actually said anything about what he did,” said Gordon. “Obviously he was limited by clearance restrictions, but he doesn’t even hint at what they do over there.”