‘I don’t understand,’ Theo shook his head.
‘Theodore Beckett,’ he began.
‘How do you know my name?’ his eyes narrowed suspiciously.
‘I know more than you can possibly imagine Theo,’ he sighed. ‘But now is not the time. I can only tell you that you are no longer in Salem and the year is no longer 1695’
‘I don't…’he shook his head, ‘I don’t understand.’
‘Theo,’ he said gently, ‘you are in a Town called Mercy and the year is 2015’
‘No, that’s not possible,’ He shook his head again. ‘It’s not possible, I died… I died in the fire…This is Hell. I’m in Hell.’
‘You might feel that way once you’ve watched a couple of episodes of Jersey Shore,’ he murmured under his breath.
‘What?’
‘Nothing,’ he grinned. ‘You’re not in Hell my friend. I hate to throw you in at the deep end, so to speak, but I’m sure you’ll adjust’
‘What am I doing here? I don’t understand, I don’t understand any of this’.
‘Back that way,’ he indicated over his shoulder, ‘through the woods you’ll find a house by a lake and in it lives a woman you might just recognize.’
‘Who?’ Theo asked suspiciously, ‘who is she?’
‘Oh I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise,’ he smiled, ‘but whether she likes it or not, she needs you. She’s now your responsibility.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Theo’s expression darkened. ‘I am not a wet nurse; I don’t intend to be responsible for anyone.’
‘Not your choice,’ he replied good naturedly. ‘I know what you’ve done Theo and I know what you want’
‘And what’s that?’ Theo hissed.
‘Redemption,’ he shrugged. ‘Trust me, she’s your ticket to peace and forgiveness but first you need to protect her.’
‘From what?’ he frowned.
‘You’ll find out soon enough.’
‘What if she doesn’t want me to protect her?’
‘You’ll figure out the details Theo, I have the utmost confidence in you. Oh and by the way,’ he leaned forward as an amused smile tugged at his lips, ‘watch out for the car’
‘What’s a car?’
But he was talking to thin air, the man before him had disappeared. Hearing a strange noise behind him he turned and threw his hands up to protect his eyes from the sudden glare of two bright lights.
Chapter 23.
Zachary smiled as he stepped out into the night air. He could feel the heat of the burning barn at his back, a curious experience. He could never quite get used to wearing human skin, it processed tactile sensations completely differently to his own form. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to wear it for long and at least that was one of the Theodore Becketts crossed off his list. Now all he had to do was find the other one. But…
His gaze tracked over to the two men who had crashed into the barn and disturbed him. One of them was on the ground leaning over that fool Logan Beckett and the other was trying to shield two small human girls. His eyes narrowed curiously, he’d heard Logan mention Nathaniel’s name and that he had a specific interest in the two girls. Perhaps he would intervene on his behalf.
He took a step towards them and stopped abruptly. He could feel the human hairs on the back of his neck begin to prickle and rise like the air was charged with energy. He turned as he felt a presence and his eyes widened curiously.
‘Nathaniel?’
Nathaniel stood before all of them, naked except for a pair of breeches he’d managed to find. He was seemingly unaffected by the cold night air and he looked different somehow. Zachary was used to seeing Nathaniel in his true form but there was something about him that he couldn’t quite pinpoint. It wasn’t the Nathaniel from this timeline, that was for sure. He seemed older, but that wasn’t it. His shiny black hair fell to his shoulders and his skin was smooth, in fact it almost seemed to glow, radiating power. But when he looked across and their gazes locked Zachary found himself drawing in a sharp breath of sudden understanding. Nathaniel’s usually beetle black eyes were now pure white.
‘Nathaniel,’ Zachary shook his head slowly, ‘what have you done?’
Nathaniel’s mouth curved into a slow and deliberate smile.
‘Absorbing human souls is forbidden,’ he breathed in alarm, ‘that is a line even we don’t cross. Did you learn nothing from that pathetic drug addict Charun?’
‘Nothing is forbidden,’ Nathaniel replied indifferently. ‘There is only power and those too afraid to seize it.’
‘Not like this,’ he hissed. ‘Human souls are like a drug, the power they give is an addiction. Once you start down this path it can only end with you as a slave to your hunger for it.’
‘I am not stupid,’ Nathaniel replied coolly, ‘and I am nothing like that pathetic creature Charun. I only needed one to break free of the body Isabel West forced me into.’
‘One is all it takes,’ Zachary warned.
‘I am strong enough to resist it,’ Nathaniel turned towards the girls as Justin pushed them behind him protectively. ‘Once I have the book I will have all the power I require.’
‘You are never going to get your hands on the book,’ Justin growled.
‘And who are you little human?’ Nathaniel asked in amusement.
Justin's mouth tightened as he took an involuntary step back, keeping tight hold of the girls.
Suddenly a streak of bright purple skimmed through the air hitting Zachary in the chest. He shrieked loudly and was knocked back with such an intense amount of force it knocked him clean out of the human body he’d been using. Stephen’s vacant husk folded to the ground with a huge smoking hole in the chest. Zachary himself was lying naked in the mud, terrible burns covered his chest and torso as he wheezed and fought to suck in a painful breath.
Olivia slid down off the horse, her flaming bow of Witch fire trained on Nathaniel as she sent another bolt of violet colored flame through the air with a punch of power. Nathaniel smiled, raising his hand and brushing it aside as if it were as harmless as a paper airplane. She drew her bow again but this time she felt her mother’s hand on her forearm.
‘I’ve got this Olivia,’ her eyes were hard and fixed on Nathaniel. ‘This time I’ll clean up my own mess.’
‘How sweet,’ Nathaniel taunted, ‘what a lovely little family reunion. Did you two kiss and make up?’
Olivia’s eyes blazed with anger as her bow flared even brighter.
‘OLIVIA!’ her mother’s voice snapped with authority, ‘STAY OUT OF THIS!’
Gritting her teeth her fists tightened but her fire banked slightly.
‘LOGAN!’ Theo leapt down from the horse, seeing his brother slumped lifelessly on the ground beside James.
‘Go’ Olivia told him, ‘we’ll handle this.’
He hesitated, torn between his dying brother and protecting Olivia.
‘Go!’ she flicked her eyes towards him sensing his indecision.
Nathaniel watched in amusement.
‘Well, well, well,’ Nathaniel’s glinting gaze swept across to the Bridget and Hester, then to Olivia and Isabel. ‘Three generations of Wests, I am being spoiled for choice today.’
‘Smirk all you like Nathaniel,’ Olivia followed him with her bow, ‘you’re not getting out of here alive and you’re certainly not getting your hands on the book.’
‘We’ll just see about that Olivia’ he replied, holding his hand up as it burst into flame. ‘You see, you’re not the only one who likes to play with fire.’
She barely had time to scream out a warning when he launched the fireball directly at her mother. Isabel didn’t even flinch. One minute she was standing there, the next there was a sudden swirl of purple colored smoke which absorbed the impact of the fireball, then just as suddenly she reappeared.
‘Witch smoke?’ Nathaniel’s brow rose in surprise, ‘you have learned some new tricks haven’t you?’
&
nbsp; ‘You have no idea,’ Isabel peeled her lips back and hissed.
She threw herself towards him in a running leap but as her feet left the ground her body whirled and disappeared into a funnel of writhing violet smoke. Nathaniel drew himself up, his body melting into a churning mass of deep green colored Demon smoke. The two clashed mid-air in a swirling writhing violent maelstrom of mashed colors, flickering purple and green.
Olivia was thrown to the ground and her bow tattered and dissipated. She looked across to see Theo and James protecting Logan and Justin shielding the two small girls. It was like being caught on the violent edge of a tornado. The wind whipped up and churned, the sky boiled with heavy storm laden clouds, punctuated with bursts of lightning generated by the static electricity of the churning funnels of smoke. The wind blew apart the remnants of the burning barn sending a spray of lit embers across to the main farmhouse, which caught and began to burn.
Olivia looked across to the burning rubble that was once the barn. For just a second before the main supports had given way she’d felt a familiar presence inside the building and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that her Sam had gotten the other Theo out, just as he was meant to. Even now he was probably dropping him in the middle of the road back in Mercy where she would find him. Something inside her, that she hadn’t even realized was wound so tight, relaxed and she breathed a sigh of relief. At least that part of the timeline was still intact. Theo had been pulled forward to Mercy and they would meet. Now she just had to make sure Hester survived.
The two gigantic funnels of colored smoke twisted and coiled madly like a gigantic corkscrew through the dark storm clouds which lit them up ominously. The ground shook and roiled beneath their feet. Olivia blinked suddenly as everything around her suddenly blurred then sharpened into focus. Something was wrong she could feel it. The nearby fences started to rattle and were suddenly pulled violently from the ground and launched across the farm in rapid succession, like a round of ammo. The ground heaved and rolled and once again everything blurred and shifted then sharpened into focus.
Olivia glanced back towards the barn her mind working furiously. She gasped in surprise as the compass still tucked carefully inside her clothes, burned white hot and began to throb. She quickly pulled it out and flipped it open. The sundial was spinning madly and pulsing in her hand. Suddenly she understood what Sam had been trying to tell her all along, about fixed points in time. This was a fixed point in time, the barn burning, Theo being pulled into the future and the girls being saved.
She stood abruptly, staring up into the sky as the brutal wind buffeted her body. Widening her stance, she braced herself against the violent down draught of air. This wasn’t supposed to happen, the battle between her mother and Nathaniel was creating a build-up of power. She could feel the crackle of electricity in the air but this was a fixed point in time, it couldn’t be changed without ripping a massive hole in the fabric of time. This timeline had already sustained too much damage, the blurring and shifting was time itself trying to expel them and reset itself. If she didn’t stop them her mother and Nathaniel were going to tear this place apart.
‘I see you’ve finally figured it out,’ a deep smooth voice spoke from someplace close behind her.
Olivia spun around but there was no one there. Frowning in confusion she watched as time began to slow all around her. Tiny embers of fire danced and swirled languidly on the air. The sky above her moved so slowly, turning and spiraling with green and purple smoke. Even the roaring of the wind had muted. She turned slowly, taking everything in.
‘The answer is right in front of you,’ the voice came again.
Whoever it was she didn’t feel threatened by him, but sensed an innate curiosity and wry amusement coming from him. She felt him step close and although when she turned to look there was no one there, she could make out a figure in her peripheral vision. As long as she wasn’t looking directly at him, she could make out a tall attractive figure wearing what looked to be a well-tailored dark suit. He seemed to be young but his hair was almost pure white.
‘Who are you?’ she asked quietly.
‘I am one of many,’ came the soft reply, so close she could almost feel his breath brush against her ear.
‘I don’t understand’ she frowned.
‘You will.’
She felt his head tilt as he looked up to the sky. ‘Their war will tear a hole in time itself, a gaping bleeding wound that will never heal.’
‘I have to stop them,’ she breathed heavily. ‘I have to find some way to reach them.’
‘You have the answer right in front of you,’ she saw a slim arm snake around her, grasping the compass and holding it to her, nestled on a masculine palm of ivory skin.
‘The sundial?’ she frowned.
‘The Timedhal,’ he corrected. ‘We created the Timedhal as a gateway across time and worlds, it is limitless…as are you Olivia.’
‘How do you know my name?’ she asked in confusion. ‘And what do you mean limitless?’
‘Do you think it a coincidence that the Timedhal came into Hades’ possession? And that he then gave it to you? The demon Seth was a means to an end, the Timedhal was never truly his.’
‘Are you saying you wanted me to have it?’ Olivia shook her head in denial, ‘that you made sure Hades got his hands on it with the express purpose of him passing it to me?’
‘That’s exactly what I’m saying,’ she could hear the acerbic humor in his voice.
‘But why? Why me?’
‘I would have thought that would be obvious by now Olivia,’ he replied, ‘or did it escape your notice how many Gods and Goddesses have taken a very specific interest in you. You’re special and you’re the only one who hasn’t figured that out yet. You know, for a very extraordinary woman sometimes you can be a little slow.’
‘Thanks,’ she replied sarcastically as she glanced down at the slightly tarnished compass in her hand, ‘so how exactly is this supposed to help?’ She flipped it open, ‘the compass takes you to another point geographically and the sundial takes you to another point in time.’
‘You are thinking too linear, too three dimensionally,’ his arms encircled her intimately and his hands cupped hers as she held the Timedhal in her joined palms. ‘It is limitless, reach beyond what your eyes are showing you. We placed it into this form as a diversion, a commonplace item so easily discounted and overlooked but like so many things, on the inside it is so much more. It only takes a truly exceptional person to unlock its secrets.’
As she stared at the curious little golden object laying so innocently in her palms everything else seemed to fade away. She could feel it pulsing against her skin like a tiny throbbing heart. Strangely it felt like her Earth fire, she could feel golden vines winding from the Timedhal down into her skin, spreading down into her flesh like ancient roots. There was no pain just a deep sense of connection, the metal became liquid swirling in her palms, the same molten gold as her eyes.
It swirled and pulsed and grew. Opening up like the heart of an exotic flower it bloomed in her hands until she was holding a huge golden sphere which looked like the innards of a clock. Hundreds of golden dials of varying sizes, some as tiny as a pea, some as large as a tennis ball, spun and all rotated elegantly, suspended between tiny mechanisms that looked too beautiful, too intricate and delicate to be man-made.
The tiny mechanism suddenly parted and folded in half and then half again revealing a golden hourglass containing infinitely pouring sand. She watched it for a moment mesmerized until the metal of the hourglass frame melted down to a molten liquid and circled her palms and the sands of time swirled to join it. Suddenly the whirling slowed and her breath caught in her throat, her eyes shimmered reflecting back the spiraling galaxies and infinite universes sitting in the palms of her hands.
‘Now do you see?’ his voice whispered seductively in her ear, ‘do you see the endless possibilities?’
She watched
the birth of a universe as planets and voids swirled out of nothingness, the beginning and end of time an endless circle. She was so intently watching the pulsing sphere in her hands she didn’t see the strands of gold surrounding everything around her, the threads of time which bound everything together. Nor did she see those threads pull taut and begin to fray every time the violent funnel of Witch smoke and Demon smoke crashed into them.
‘Olivia,’ the voice crooned softly, ‘you know what to do.’
Strangely enough she did. She concentrated on the sphere in her hands and the galaxies and stars disappeared. She pulled back in the molten gold metal and in her mind began to manipulate it. It coiled and twisted in her palms, slowly taking shape. A circular shape like a portal with an ornate golden frame appeared but she was so focused on the beautiful shape in her hands she didn’t see an enormous replica of it appear high up in the sky.
A small smile appeared on her lips when she finally looked up. The portal in the sky shimmered and pulsed and suddenly the purple and green tornado of smoke was pulled inside with both of them howling and shrieking in fury. Staring up in satisfaction into the now clear sky which was filled with the pale rays of dawn, she turned her attention back to the glowing sphere in her palms. Closing her hands together the golden light disappeared and when she opened her hands again the Timedhal was once again sitting sedately in her palm, looking for all the world like a plain tarnished old compass.
‘Very good Olivia,’ she heard the amused voice fading behind her. ‘There may be hope after all.’
She turned but the enigmatic stranger was gone, she no longer even felt his presence. Her gaze fell on Theo who was cradling his brother’s body gently in his arms. She slowly approached but even from this distance she could tell it was too late. Her heart broke when she saw the sheer grief weighing down on Theo. His head hung low and his shoulders slumped as he wrapped his arms tightly around his brother.
‘Theo,’ she whispered, placing her hand on his shoulder and dropping down next to him.
‘He’s gone Livy,’ he whispered brokenly.
The Guardians Complete Series 1 Box Set: Contains Mercy, The Ferryman, Crossroads, Witchfinder, Infernum Page 150