The Guardians Complete Series 1 Box Set: Contains Mercy, The Ferryman, Crossroads, Witchfinder, Infernum

by Wendy Saunders

  She stepped back watching him quietly as he kicked off his shoes and woolen socks and discarded his jerkin. Yanking his shirt over his head he climbed onto the bed in only his breeches and sat with his back propped up against the head of the bed.

  ‘You haven’t eaten,’ Olivia sat down on the edge of the bed next to him, ‘you missed supper.’

  ‘I’m not hungry,’ he murmured reaching out towards her. His hand snaked underneath her hair cupping the back of her neck, the pad of his thumb grazing her jaw gently as his dark eyes fixed on her.

  ‘Talk to me,’ she whispered.

  ‘What is there to say?’ he sighed, dropping his hand.

  She sat patiently waiting for him to organize his thoughts.

  ‘I’m having a hard time reconciling what they did,’ he frowned. ‘I was raised to believe adultery was wrong, a sin against God but then I think about you and I understand. I understand what it is to love someone so much you would risk everything for them, break every single rule for them, but understanding why doesn’t change the fact I was born of a mockery of a marriage and lies.’

  ‘No’ Olivia told him firmly, ‘you and your sister were both born from love and I think that is better than being born from duty.’

  This time her hand cupped his face, drawing his gaze back to hers.

  ‘Theo, I know the kind of religious upbringing you were subjected to. I know this is hard for you to accept, but you can’t have it both ways.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘You can’t judge them so harshly when by Puritan standards and laws what we’ve been doing is considered just as bad,’ she reminded him. ‘You are technically widowed and I’ve never married, so we’re not committing adultery but we’re lovers outside of marriage. Life’s not black and white Theo. Your poor mother was denied the man she truly loved and forced into a violent and unhappy marriage in which she stayed to protect her children from your harsh society. You can’t fault her or James for trying to grasp onto any single moment of happiness they could.’

  ‘Maybe not,’ he shook his head, ‘and part of me is so damn grateful she did have James. My mother was a kind and loving woman; she didn’t deserve a man like Matthias Beckett.’

  ‘But?’ she prompted, sensing there was a ‘but’ in there somewhere.

  ‘But’ he continued, ‘it’s like I woke up and everything I ever believed was a lie. I was raised to believe witches and magic were evil, only to discover the people peddling that crap were descended from witches themselves. The whole thing just reeks of hypocrisy’

  ‘It makes you question everything, doesn’t it?’ she replied sympathetically.

  ‘I always thought I knew my mother, knew exactly who she was and I mourned her. God, I mourned her every damn day only to find out she wasn’t the woman I thought she was and that I never really knew her at all.’

  ‘You did know her Theo, in all the ways that counted. Okay, so she couldn’t tell you James was your father and she couldn’t tell you about her magical gifts but she loved you, she protected you and that’s all that matters. That’s what you have to hold onto. Hold onto her love for you, everything else will come in time.’

  ‘Is this how you felt when you found out the truth about your parents?’

  ‘What, you mean when I found out my dead mother wasn’t actually dead but a psychopathic serial killer and that my father wasn’t a killer but had lied to me most of my entire life?’ her lip curved in amusement. ‘Yeah, you know how messed up I was, but you know what?’

  ‘What?’

  She climbed up on the bed next to him, lifting her shift out of the way as she swung a leg over him, settling in his lap astride his thighs. She leaned forward and took his face gently in her hands.

  ‘I got through it because I had you. Even when I felt like I was shattering into a thousand pieces you were the one who held me together and now it’s my turn to do that for you.’

  ‘Livy’ he breathed, pressing his forehead to hers, ‘do you have any idea of how in love with you I am?’

  ‘Probably about the same as I am with you.’

  His mouth lost some of the grim lines and curved with a small self-deprecating chuckle.

  ‘I don’t know why you put up with me.’

  ‘Guess I’m just crazy,’ she smiled back.

  He pulled back, his dark eyes holding hers.

  ‘Crazy enough to marry me?’

  Olivia’s smile faded slightly as she searched his face.

  ‘Depends,’ she replied softly, ‘are you asking me as a knee jerk reaction to your parents not being married and you and I living in sin?’

  ‘I’m asking you because I can’t stand to live a single moment of my life, without you and belonging to each other in every way possible. I’m asking you because I want to promise you forever. I’m asking you because it’s what I want, not because its expected.’

  A small smile played on her lips.

  ‘Then yeah,’ she murmured, ‘crazy enough to marry you.’

  ‘Is that a yes?’ his face broke into a wide smile.

  ‘Yes’ she laughed, as his hands slid into her hair gripping the nape of her neck and his lips crashed down on hers.

  The second his tongue traced the seam of her lips her mouth fell open on a gasp. He tasted her slowly and thoroughly. Her fingers released the firm muscles of his shoulders and plunged into his thick dark hair and gripped tightly. His hands slid down her neck to her shoulders grasping her shift and dragging it down her arms letting the soft material pool at her waist. She couldn’t help the groan of helpless pleasure that escaped the moment he filled his hands with her swollen breasts, moaning as he dragged his thumbs across her nipples, grazing the sensitive peaks.

  She rolled her hips, rocking forward in his lap and feeling him hard and ready between her thighs. They hadn’t made love since the night she’d found him in the abandoned psychiatric hospital in the Otherworld and she’d missed him, missed the intimacy and desperate pleasure of feeling him inside her.

  It burned through her blood now like a drug, passion as bright and intense as her fire. Her need for him was beyond words. She suspected from the way he devoured her mouth, digging his fingers into her hips as his hardness pressed against her core, that he felt it too, the intense need they had for each other.

  ‘Theo,’ she gasped against his mouth, ‘please…’

  He shifted her slightly in his lap, his lips never breaking contact with her as he loosened his breeches and pushed them down past his hips. His hands skimmed up her thighs pushing her shift up until he was grasping her naked buttocks. She slid down on him achingly slow until he filled her completely, moaning into his mouth at the sudden feeling of fullness. He couldn’t help himself as he thrust up inside her, helplessly lost to her. Her back arched, changing the angle of his penetration and increasing the friction, her posture unconsciously offering her breasts to him. He closed his mouth over one of those pretty little peaks, increasing the suction until he felt her internal muscles tighten around him causing him to lose his hold on her nipple and drag in a sharp gasp of intense pleasure.

  His hands gripped her hips desperately as she rode him, her hips undulating against him. She drove him to the point of madness, until all he could see was her whiskey colored eyes deepening to molten gold, her midnight hair spilling down her back like an inky waterfall grazing his thighs, all of which added another layer of sensation. His gaze held hers and despite the sheer intensity of being inside her he could see her smile playing on her lips as their eyes locked. She rocked her hips forward again, taking him even deeper and he was unable to stop the groan which tore from his throat.

  ‘Shush,’ she clamped her hand over his mouth, her breath hot and teasing in his ear. ‘Your dad will hear us.’

  He growled and tossed her on her back, causing her to laugh breathlessly as he followed her and plunged back inside her. Her laugher died in her throat to be replaced with a deep moan
as she arched up into him.

  ‘God!’ the breath rushed from her lungs as he skillfully rolled his hips, angling himself so he hit that place inside her which made her see stars.

  ‘Such blasphemy,’ he breathed into her ear this time, his mouth curving as he nipped her earlobe playfully.

  ‘Theo please,’ she gasped as he set a torturous pace.

  His hands skimmed the length of her arms until he reached her hands and linked their fingers. He lifted her arms pinning them above her head by their entangled fingers. She wrapped her legs around his hips as he drove her up, higher and higher until she couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything but breath him in. His lips took hers once again, drinking in every moan, every gasp, absorbing every single part of her she gave to him so freely, until finally they both shattered.

  This…he thought to himself breathing heavily, his heart pounding so loud he could hear it in his ears, what he felt right now. His intense love for the woman pinned beneath his powerful body, this was worth breaking every rule for and in that moment he understood…she was the other half of his soul.

  Chapter 9.

  Olivia lay awake staring at the rough wooden beams of the ceiling that were, for the most part, concealed by the deep shadows of the room. Theo was sprawled naked over the bed beside her, lying on his stomach with one arm wrapped around her waist, his breathing deep and even. Drawing in a frustrated breath she carefully slipped out from underneath his grip so as not to wake him. She couldn’t say exactly what had woken her, she’d been dreaming but already the dream was fading, slipping from her grasp as fine and insubstantial as mist. It was important somehow, she was sure of it. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat there for a moment trying to grasp the loose threads of the dream. It was not a dream she realized with a slight jolt, she’d been remembering something, something Theo had said to her back in Mercy.

  She rubbed her forehead in frustration as if the action could nudge loose the elusive thought she’d been chasing. She felt unsettled as if she were forgetting something important but she just couldn’t put her finger on what it was. She stood and stretched, feeling the pull of her overused muscles. She stepped over her shift which had been discarded along with Theo’s breeches at some point during the night, when he’d made love to her again. Not bothering to pull her garment back on she stood in front of the window. She could barely see anything outside; the pale moonlight was mostly obscured by huge swirling storm clouds as the rain hammered down against the roof of the house. Perhaps the rain had woken her or the distant rumbles of thunder. No she frowned, that wasn’t it. She couldn’t explain it, there was something she was missing, some detail that was right under her nose. What the hell was it?

  Suddenly a new sound intruded over Theo’s soft snores and the pounding of the rain against the window, a strange sibilant whispering. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard it. She canted her head to the side straining to make out the words, or even the language that was being spoken, but it was too soft and there were too many distractions. She continued to listen for a moment longer but it began to fade and was soon replaced by the howl and shriek of the storm. Shaking her head she wondered if she’d imagined it.

  Tired and frustrated but not able to sleep she turned back to the window, watching as the rivulets of water streamed down the surface. The driving rain had let up slightly and was now a soft constant drumming against the panes of glass. Without realizing it she picked up the compass which still hung from the chain around her neck. She stroked it absently with her fingertips as she gazed out of the window lost in thought. She didn’t even notice that Theo was no longer snoring, nor did she hear him pull the blanket from the bed, wrapping it around himself as he climbed out of bed and moved to stand behind her. She jolted slightly as his warm sleepy arms snaked around her waist drawing her naked body in against his own, as he wrapped the blanket around both of them.

  ‘What is it love?’ His voice was roughened by sleep as he murmured against her ear.

  ‘Couldn’t sleep,’ she turned in his arms reaching up on her tiptoes to press a soft kiss against his mouth.

  ‘Come back to bed.’ He wrapped his arms around her tightly and lifted her, carrying her back to the bed.

  Whatever random thought Olivia had been trying to hold on to tattered and drifted away and as they sunk back down into the warm bedding all she thought of was Theo.

  With the dawn came no respite from the storm. The skies wept openly with a continuous downpour, thunder rolled ominously across the sky punctuated every now and then by a jagged slash of lightning. The storm seemed to perfectly mirror Theo’s mood. James had disappeared early in the morning with an excuse of work he needed to do in the barn, and whilst that may have been true to a certain extent, Olivia was sure the decision was made in part with the desire to give his son some space. However, as the day wore on Theo’s mood darkened and he became more and more restless.

  Olivia, thinking it best to give him some space, had withdrawn to the fireplace where she sat pouring over Hester’s Grimoire, looking for some clues as to how they were going to manage jumping ten years into the future. Finally, in frustration, she slammed the book shut and wrapped it in the old tattered cloak she’d been using to conceal it. She couldn’t seem to concentrate. Although she couldn’t recall the details of her dream from the night before she still had the unsettling feeling she was missing something important. It was something Theo had told her in passing, she was sure of it, but try as she may she couldn’t bring it to mind.

  Giving up on that particular trail of thought she pulled the compass from the collar of her dress and eased the chain over her head so she could inspect it more closely. Everyone seemed to be so concerned with the small golden compass which, quite frankly, didn’t even work that well. Still Hades himself had gone out of his way to give it to her, insisting it would work if she simply took the time to ‘figure it out’ as he’d told her in his usual dry tone. It had been the same with Tituba, she’d said the compass would work specifically for her if she took the time to learn its secrets.

  Why her? she frowned silently. What was so special about her? And why was everyone being purposefully vague? Why didn’t the damn thing come with an instruction manual? She turned it over in her hands again, flipping open the lid. It was a compass, for all its delicate craftsmanship it was still just a compass, what more could it possibly do? Okay so it had taken them to the Crossroad Epsilon while they’d been in the Underworld. But there again, they were in the Underworld at a time when that place had ancient magic woven through the very fabric of its existence. Would it even work in the real world?

  Closing the lid, she turned it over to study the underneath. There was nothing there, it was just plain smooth metal but as she turned it on its edge she could feel another fine groove which ran around the circumference of the compass. Curiously she grasped it gently in her fingertips and twisted slightly as if twisting the cap off a bottle. Much to her surprise it rotated smoothly and with a quiet click it flipped open on a small spring. Her mouth fell open in a silent surprised ‘Oh.’ The top opened to reveal a compass face, but underneath was a small concealed compartment. She lifted it closer and studied it carefully. When the lid had sprung open the internal mechanism had also triggered something else. A tiny golden triangle had flicked out in the center and now stood on its narrow edge. Underneath it were markings and engravings. It was…a sundial she realized after a moment, a miniature sundial and it was incredible, so tiny and yet so detailed. Strangely enough a glint of color caught her attention and in the center of the sundial was a flash of blue stone. It wasn’t smooth and round but there was a jagged scar which split the face of the golden metal to reveal a shard of deep blue crystal. Now that the stone was exposed she could feel the strong thrum of power pulsing through the metal into her palm. It was like the exposed shard of crystal was a vein, throbbing and pulsing with life. Maybe they were right, maybe it was more powerful than she thoug
ht.

  What was it Hades had said to her?

  ‘It’s a compass Olivia, so ask yourself what does a compass do?’

  A compass? she frowned, well it was an instrument for determining a direction. It shows the way to your destination, but it was more than that. Her frown deepened and her lips pursed as she tried to follow the thought through to its conclusion. The compass hadn’t just shown her the way to the Crossroad it had taken her there. In fact, it had taken her there because she had specifically asked it to. Tituba was right, the compass would work for her. So what was the sundial for? If she broke down the thought process the same way she had with the compass, the sundial was a way of telling the hour of the day using the shadow cast by the sun’s position. Essentially it recorded the passage of time…

  Holy shit!

  Olivia’s hand trembled slightly. What if this was the answer? If the Compass could transport them across distance what if the sundial could transport them across time? If she could just figure out how to make it work. She tried to think back to the Underworld, to the moment it had transported them to the Crossroad. What exactly had she done? Holding the small sundial close to her face she took a deep breath.

  ‘Wake up’ she whispered, her warm breath fanning across the deep blue stone.

  The tiny golden triangle trembled slightly, then twitched. Her heart gave a sharp thud of excitement and her breath caught in her throat. This was it, this was somehow the answer if she could just figure it out. She looked up as the door banged open abruptly, letting in the driving rain as James stomped into the house dripping water across the floor.

  Reluctantly she closed the sundial and pulled the chain back over her head, tucking the compass safely back under her clothes. She needed to think about this some more before she started experimenting with jumping through time and even then there was no guarantee that it would work. All she had right now was a theory and a vague one at that.