‘I will deal with Nathaniel,’ she eyes locked on the demon who glared at her behind the wall of purple flame.
‘Tituba!’
‘GO!’ she commanded.
‘Theo we have to move now!’ Logan coughed.
He threw one last look at Tituba and rushed from the room following his brother. Once out in the hall they backed up as the ceiling crashed in blocking the door.
‘Come on,’ Logan yelled, ‘I know another way out.’
Turning blindly Theo followed his brother into the smoke and flames.
Tituba turned and watched Nathaniel, completely unfazed by the smoke, heat or flames. She didn’t even flinch as more of the building collapsed around them.
‘They don’t even know who you are do they?’ Nathaniel sneered. ‘They have no idea that you’re not even human.’
‘They’ll know soon enough,’ she replied calmly. Although her voice still held the musical island accent it was no longer the poor speech patterns of a common slave but instead was articulate and well spoken.
‘I wasn’t sure until just now’ his eyes narrowed, ‘but I know who you are now.’
She watched him dispassionately as another part of the house groaned followed by a crash of splintering wood.
‘You could have escaped at any point before I shackled you,’ he glared at her accusingly. ‘You had the power not only to walk about but to make those around you suffer and yet you didn’t. You allowed yourself to be subjected to slavery and abuse. You allowed them to beat you, condemn you and imprison you and still you did not use your powers to defend yourself.’
‘You want to know why?’
‘Tell me’ he growled, ‘you were never Tituba were you?’
She shook her head. ‘The real Tituba died of fever back in Barbados months before Samuel Parris even sailed for the Colonies. He didn’t even notice the difference; to him slaves are no better than animals. In his eyes every black woman looks the same.’
‘So why? Why this elaborate ruse?’
‘I would have thought that was obvious even to a stupid demon like you,’ she scowled. ‘I was waiting for her.’
‘What’s so special about Olivia West?’
‘I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise for you so soon,’ she smiled.
‘You don’t really think you can protect her do you?’ he sneered.
‘She has more allies than even she realizes,’ she replied. ‘We have waited a long, long time for her, do you really think we would allow any harm to come to her.’
‘I don’t care what you think’ he growled, smashing his fist against the wall of flames holding him and ignoring the searing pain of his smoking flesh. ‘This fire won’t hold me indefinitely and as soon as I get free the first thing I will do is kill the West girls, take possession of the book and then… I’m coming for her.’
‘And I will make sure she’s ready,’ she threatened menacingly.
‘You don’t have time’ he hissed. ‘This fire will burn out within hours and I will be free.’
‘Oh you think so?’ her brow twitched as she raised her hands, ‘we’ll just see about that shall we?’
Her eyes burned deep ocean blue, her skin glowed with a mesmerizing luminance, the scent of briny salt water filled the air and the distant sound of waves echoed around her. The floor at his feet cracked and splintered, splitting open like a skin. The ground churned as she thrust deep, deep underground with her power, cracking open soil and rock until she reached a deep natural well of water. Prizing the ground open even further the water surged upwards, a violent swell that ripped up through the layers of sediment until it reached the ground level. It erupted into the room with a steamy hiss as it made contact with the red and gold flames of the house fire. The purple flames however weren’t doused by it. Instead the water swirled in a huge wave, curling around the flame encased demon until it coalesced into a writhing churning mass, a sphere comprised entirely of water, completely impenetrable and airtight. Inside the prison of water, the violet flames of Olivia’s Witch fire continued to burn. He screamed and beat his fists against the fire but it was no good.
She smiled coolly as the writhing sphere plunged deeply back into the earth taking the burning demon with it. The ground folded over and closed once again, sealing him in a watery prison.
‘Enjoy the next fifty years,’ she murmured.
Suddenly the beams above her cracked and gave way. With a thundering crash the house collapsed in on itself but by the time the beams and burning timber hit the ground, the strange dark skinned woman was already gone. The only evidence of her presence was the smell of salt water in the air and the lone call of a seagull who swooped high above in the sky, surveying the carnage below with a dispassionate eye.
Theo and Logan burst out into the blessedly cool air. With a loud crack the house behind them crashed in on itself as they stumbled away from the cloud of burning ash and smoke that was thrown up into the air.
‘Come on’ Logan coughed, ‘we have to get her out of the street.’
The exit had brought them out on the other side of the house. The only way around was to skirt past the next house along and down a long thin alleyway. Theo cradled Olivia closer and Logan tucked the Grimoire under his coat. They hurried away from the burning pile of timbers and by the time they exited the alleyway back onto the main street it was in chaos. James rushed towards them pulling off his cloak and throwing it over Olivia’s body.
‘Quickly’ James told them, ‘the fire has brought out the governor himself who only lives two streets over. Get her inside before anyone starts asking questions.’
People were running down the street screaming and buckets of water were being passed along hand to hand. There was no use trying to save Nathaniel’s house anymore and they were now concentrating their efforts on dousing the buildings either side to stop the fire from spreading. Huddling Olivia closer to try and hide her from prying eyes, they pressed through the mass of panicked bodies and acrid smoke filled air and dived down the alley towards The Salted Bone.
James limped ahead and banged on the door. As it swung open they ducked inside and headed straight up the stairs to the room they’d been encamped in earlier.
‘Get me some clean water and some linen strips to bind her wounds,’ Theo instructed as he laid her out carefully on the bed. ‘Olivia?’ he smoothed the hair from her soot smeared swollen face.
‘Theo?’ she croaked, opening her eyes and trying to sit up.
‘Don’t move, not yet,’ he pressed her gently into the bed. ‘We need to take a look at your injuries.’
‘Nathaniel?’
‘Tituba is dealing with him’ he told her softly, ‘you are safe for the moment.’
‘No,’ she shook her head struggling to rise.
‘Olivia,’ he pressed her back once again.
‘Sweet Jaysus,’ a strong Irish accent gasped from the doorway.
Theo turned to see Thomas Murphy looking down at Olivia while crossing himself. Theo steeled himself as he turned back to her, forcing down the fresh wave of guilt that he had let Logan talk him into waiting. He was horrified at the extent of her wounds. Her right eye was completely swollen shut, her lips were bitten ragged and split. Her jaw was severely bruised and so swollen it made her face look lopsided. There was a long thin wound along her collar bone which was still bleeding, and a rapidly darkening bruise was spreading across her shoulder and down her arm towards her left hand which was mangled beyond repair. In fact, it didn’t even look like a hand any longer, just a mangled lump of flesh and protruding splintered bones.
A patch of dark blood stained her shift at the top of her rib cage and her right leg had small cruel looking puncture marks leading down her shin. He wished that had been the worst of it but she still had three vicious looking pins protruding from her shoulder, her thigh and her forearm. He reached out to touch them tentatively and she sucked in a painful breath.
‘Olivia we need to get these out,’ he told her gently as she closed her eyes and nodded.
‘No wait!’ James stopped him as he reached for them again. ‘I’m very familiar with these,’ he grimaced rubbing his lame leg unconsciously. ‘They screw down into bone and flesh, if you just yank them out they will cause more damage.’
‘Jesus Christ,’ Theo shut his eyes and clenched his fists. ‘I am going to find Nathaniel and when I do I’m going to fucking destroy him.’
A small smile tugged at the corner of Olivia’s swollen mouth. It always sounded strange when Theo swore as he did it so rarely, but when he did he sounded just like Jake. A sudden wave of homesickness washed over her and she ruthlessly gritted her teeth.
‘Just get them out,’ she ground out.
‘You have to twist them back out slowly,’ James told Theo, ‘and it’s going to hurt like hell.’
‘Do it,’ she nodded.
James wrapped his arms around her carefully, holding her tight.
‘We’ve got you Livy love,’ James told her and as the endearment fell unconsciously from his lips he sounded so much like his son.
Setting his jaw determinedly Theo reached for the first screw and that’s when the screaming began. It killed him, it absolutely destroyed him to cause her such prolonged and systematic pain but there was no other way to get the sadistic pins from her body. It seemed to take forever and as the last one was pulled from her thigh she slumped back against the bed breathing heavily. Theo reached for the bowl of water and gently cleaned her wounds and bound each of them tightly with strips of linen. He was just binding the last one when Justin rushed into the room carrying a handful of men’s clothing and a cloak.
‘We need to move quickly,’ he told them handing the clothes to Theo. ‘The wind changed direction, the fire jumped to the next street and they can’t keep ahead of the flames. If they don’t pull down some of the houses as a fire break we could lose half the town.’
Theo stood quickly as James helped Olivia into a sitting position. Between the two of them they managed to help her dress in the breeches and linen shirt, being careful of her heavily bandaged hand and her various injuries. Olivia moved to sit on the edge of the bed, cradling her broken hand close to her body and holding onto her elbow trying to relieve the relentless shooting pain in her shoulder, then they pulled on a pair of long woolen socks and the smallest pair of leather shoes they could find.
‘Is the fire heading this way?’ Theo asked, wrapping the cloak around her.
‘Not yet’ Justin shook his head, ‘but it’s only a matter of time.’
‘Which direction is the fire burning in?’ Olivia croaked.
‘East towards the harbor.’
‘We need to head North’ she told them.
Justin shook his head, ‘it’s too dangerous. If the wind changes again the fire will blow straight across our path.’
‘Olivia,’ James told her softly, ‘we’re going to take you back to my house. You’ll be safe there.’
‘No,’ she shook her head, ‘we can’t go back. We have to go North.’
‘What? Why?’ Theo asked.
‘Because that’s where my mother is and she’s already with Hester and Bridget. The other Nathaniel was at the house before and he now knows how to break the body my mother forced him into. If we don’t get to him in time, he’s going to kill one of the girls and free himself.’
‘Shit,’ Theo swore.
‘But there’s more than that, Zachary is here.’
‘Zachary?’ Theo’s gaze snapped back to hers.
‘Who’s Zachary?’ Logan asked stepping closer, still holding the book and the knife Tituba had thrust into his hands.
‘He’s another demon,’ Theo told him, ‘Nathaniel’s second in command.’
‘Where is he?’ Logan asked. ‘Was he in the house when the fire started?’
Olivia shook her head. ‘No,’ she looked up at Theo, ‘Nathaniel sent him to kill you.’
‘He’s welcome to try,’ Theo’s tone was flat and dangerous.
‘No,’ she insisted worriedly, ‘not just you, the other you as well. The younger version of you.’
‘What?’ James gasped.
‘Someone needs to go to the Beckett farm and protect the other version of you until Sam shows up and drags your ass to Mercy,’ Olivia told him, ‘and it can’t be you or me because he can’t know about us.’
‘I’ll do it,’ James stood abruptly.
‘I’ll go too,’ Justin agreed.
‘Good,’ Olivia let out a deep breath of pain as she shifted her body. ‘Now someone get me a horse please, we need to get to Hester before the other Nathaniel does.’
‘Olivia you don’t know how to ride a horse,’ Theo frowned.
‘Fine, you get me on a horse then but either way we need to go now.’
‘Olivia you are in no fit state to take on Nathaniel or your mother, you need to rest.’
She grasped his hand with her one good hand and tugged him down to her level so she could touch his face.
‘Theo,’ she whispered softly, ‘this is what we came here for, we can’t stop now.’
‘Nathaniel nearly killed you,’ he replied angrily, ‘and you want me to take you out into the woods broken and defenseless and let him have another shot at you?’
‘Not defenseless,’ she corrected him. ‘My hand may be useless and I can’t walk unaided but I can still use magic. I still have enough strength for that. I know my body may be a bit worse for wear right now and I’m not going to lie to you Theo, I’m in a hell of a lot of pain. All I want to do is lie down and sleep until the pain stops, but we have a responsibility. This is the choice we made, stop Nathaniel, stop my mother, no matter the cost.’
‘Even if the cost is your life?’
‘Even then’ she whispered, touching his face lovingly. ‘I found you once in the Otherworld, don’t think I can’t do it again,’ she smiled painfully, wincing as her lip split again. ‘We’re forever Theo, in this life or the next and everywhere in between.’
‘Forever?’ he traced the undamaged side of her jaw with his thumb.
‘Forever,’ she promised. ‘We’ll always find each other Theo, no matter what happens. But I’m really not planning on dying you know, you did promise to marry me.’
‘I did, didn’t I?’ he smiled softly.
‘Yes you did, and I want a dress and a ring,’ she replied gently, ‘so let’s get this done and go home.’
‘Alright then,’ he sighed.
‘Alright?’ Logan repeated incredulously, ‘are you mad? She’s in no condition to go up against Nathaniel.’
‘You don’t know her very well Logan,’ Theo scratched his chin thoughtfully. ‘You can try telling her ‘no’ if you like but I wouldn’t recommend it. It didn’t work out too well for the God of the Underworld.’
‘What?’ Logan’s face paled.
‘Logan?’ Olivia glanced at Theo. ‘Is this your brother?’
‘Let’s save the introductions for later,’ Theo told her, ‘we can talk on the ride out of Salem, but right now we need to get ahead of the fire before the wind shifts its course again.’
‘Very well,’ Logan replied grudgingly, ‘but I’m going with you.’
Theo nodded.
‘Logan?’ Olivia reached out towards him suddenly, ‘where did you get that knife?’
‘This?’ he handed it to her, ‘the slave woman gave it to me.’
‘Where is Tituba?’
She looked at Theo who met her eyes sympathetically. ‘I’m sorry Olivia, we tried to get her to come with us but she stayed behind to deal with Nathaniel. She never made it out of the house before it collapsed.’
Olivia shut her eyes briefly against a wave of grief for the woman who’d shown her such kindness.
‘Here take this,’ she handed the knife to James. ‘It’s powerful, it should work against Zachary.’
J
ames accepted it with a nod, tucking it carefully inside his clothes.
‘You’d better take this back now,’ Theo told Olivia as he lifted the compass from his neck and removed it.
‘Thank you,’ she murmured as he slid the chain over her head and tucked it into her shirt.
‘The horses are ready,’ Thomas appeared at the door, ‘they’re around back. You should get going.’
Theo bent down and carefully picked Olivia up, cradling her against his body. They all hurried back down the steps and out the back door, into the smoke filled street. James and Justin were the first to mount up, their horses dancing expectantly beneath them, as they watched Logan take Olivia while Theo slid up into his saddle. He passed her up to his brother carefully and Theo settled her onto the horse in front of him, wrapping his arms around her protectively as Logan mounted his own horse.
‘We’ll head North,’ Theo told James. ‘If all goes well we’ll meet you at the farm.’
‘Be careful,’ James nodded as both he and Justin turned their mounts in the opposite direction and headed out.
‘I guess that just leaves us then,’ Theo turned to his brother. ‘You know the town better than I do, now get us the hell out of Salem.’
Chapter 20.
Isabel placed another couple of sticks in the fireplace and stoked the fire absently as Abigail cleaned away the dishes from the table.
‘Hester,’ Abigail called softly, ‘come wash the dishes.’
‘But it’s Bridey's turn’ she complained.
‘Tis not,’ Bridget frowned.
‘It is too,’ Hester replied not even bothering to look up from where she lay, comfortably splayed on her stomach in front of the fire watching the dancing flames.
‘Actually,’ Isabel smiled up at Abigail, ‘I think it is Bridget’s turn.’
Hester looked across to Isabel as she leaned back in Abigail’s favorite rocking chair. Their gazes met for a moment and Isabel winked.
‘But it’s not fair,’ Bridget grumbled.
‘Come on’ Abigail smiled, ‘I’ll help you.’
Isabel watched as Bridget and her mother disappeared from the room taking a bucket with them to fill with water. Once they were alone her gaze again fell to the small dark haired girl lying on the ground, who was watching her warily.
The Guardians Complete Series 1 Box Set: Contains Mercy, The Ferryman, Crossroads, Witchfinder, Infernum Page 145