But Aislen knew Sigmund would not bring her mother to the actual rock. Even though it wasn’t thick with tourists, there were still too many to risk a confrontation. But it was on the map, so it was a place to start. Now that she was here, however, she was lost. There was no telling where in this vast landscape Sigmund would be with her mother, and there was only one way for Aislen to figure it out.
She turned off the main road and traveled a long distance down an unpaved road into a secluded clearing in the grasslands, then pulled the amulet and the map out of Raziel’s backpack. She’d ignored both the whole trip. She wasn’t in the mood to hear the pendant argue when in her heart she knew what she needed to do.
Aislen rolled the map out on her lap and hovered the amulet over the center. She slowly allowed it to drift across the drawing, finding where the amulet matched the frequency of Uluru, so she could find her bearings on the drawing. It reverberated resolutely in the space where the amethyst stone was set. Once she was aligned, she maneuvered the amulet to the place on the map where she felt she was now. The amulet changed frequencies, syncing up with her own, aligning with the diamond in the map and on the amulet.
Unwittingly, she had stopped in the exact spot that her father had drawn on the map. She was supposed to be here. He had seen it all those years ago.
Aislen shifted frequencies, pulling up her mother’s signature from her memories. She tuned in and got ready for the amulet to guide her across the map, expecting it to take her to the varicolored gem.
The amulet went silent.
Aislen’s heart stopped. Was her mother dead?
The amulet singed her fingertips. No.
Aislen started over, realigning the amulet with Uluru on the map. It burst back into harmony. Again, she moved it to where she was sitting, and again it realigned. Once more, she tuned into her mother’s vibration and moved the amulet. It went mute.
Dread thudded with a hard punch in her gut.
Her mother wasn’t here. The amulet purred to life. I shouldn’t have come. The amulet died.
“Fuuuuuuck!” Aislen screamed, throwing the amulet down and jumping out of the car. She stomped across the blood red sand out into the nothing, threw back her head and let loose a primal scream of rage.
Sigmund didn’t have her mother. It was something that Aislen had changed in her time walk. The one and only thing that had brought Aislen to this godforsaken place, and she wasn’t here.
Aislen should have felt relieved. It meant her mother was safe, probably at home worried about where her daughter had disappeared to. But it didn’t settle her. It rattled her even more.
Aislen wasn’t just lost in the desert. She was lost in time. She had no understanding of the past to determine how to move forward. She’d been acting on the memories of what had happened before she altered the first dream, and because she didn’t allow the new memories in to wipe them out, it was all she had to go by. It was only a five-day gap in time, but it had changed everything.
Aislen screamed out again until her throat burned as hot as the blazing sky. She was raw with fury, angry at Sigmund, her father, Raziel…all of the people who had anything to do with this twisted and manipulative reality. But she was angry with herself more than anything else. She was a fool! Incapable of doing the right thing in this world that she found herself in. She wasn’t meant for this kind of life. She was meant to stay a small-town girl, insulated in a bubble of obliviousness. Ignorance truly was utter bliss.
She fell onto her knees in the dirt and allowed herself to cry, weeping hot tears into the searing sand. She let every drop of weakness and stupidity drain out of her. This would be the last time she’d cry. This would be the last time she would be played. There would be hell to pay for the misery she’d been put through. Starting with Sigmund Lange.
The muted crackle of rubber against rubble approached from behind her. Of course! If she was destined to be here, someone else would be here, too. She wasn’t just supposed to fall apart in the desert. Her father wouldn’t need to draw her a map for that. She picked herself up from the ground and marched back to the truck, pulling out the shotgun and racking a shell into the chamber.
Whoever was coming to meet her right now had picked the wrong time. She wasn’t going down without a fight.
The ochre whirlwind of dust sped toward her like a pending hurricane. As it skidded to a stop behind her car, Aislen raised the shotgun, took aim toward the windshield, and put her finger on the trigger. She’d give them a heads up as to what was coming. She braced herself for the kick of the gun as the driver’s side door opened. Raziel stepped out of the car.
She dropped her aim as he ran toward her. He grabbed hold of her just as her knees buckled under her, pulling her into his arms and holding on to her for dear life. All of her breath escaped her in a cry of relief. She sobbed against his chest, so grateful to be seeing him, to be in his arms. He cradled her head, his lips showering the crown of her head with kisses.
“God damn it, woman!” His voice was husky with emotion. “I never thought I would see you again.”
“I know, Raziel. I am so sorry.” She held onto him tighter, letting herself melt into his solid form and energy, realizing he wasn’t just important to her: he was everything.
She looked up at him, confessing in a rush. “I changed time, Raziel. I changed it bad. I woke up, and things were different. And then I found the note from my dad. It said you shouldn’t come with me…that if you did you would die. And the dolls were different. You weren’t in a suit anymore. You were an angel, all white with feathered wings.”
Raziel pulled her head to his lips, pressing them to her forehead. “I know. I saw them. And I saw how history was changing as I was waking up. So I knew what had happened.”
There was no judgment in his tone, no “I told you so.” There wasn’t a trace of anger toward her for abandoning him at the temple or leaving him stranded without money or means. He just held onto her like nothing else mattered. How he got to her, why he got to her, she didn’t know, but she wasn’t going to question it. If anybody could do anything, it was Raziel.
She looked back up at him. “My mom isn’t here. They didn’t trick her into coming here for me.”
Raziel nodded. “I know. She’s with Sgt. Mathis. She’s safe.”
Another shudder of relief trembled through her. “What else?”
“Mathis never had the game, never went into Demesne, never got blasted.” He let all that sink in before continuing. “And Scott Parrish is alive. You knocked the bullet trajectory off course, and it hit Parrish in the shoulder, not the head. So Blake still has his father.”
“Oh my God! That’s wonderful!” Aislen was overwhelmed with joy. Her small act in the past had changed things for the good!
“So I didn’t need to leave!” she exclaimed. “I never needed to come here at all!”
Raziel’s eyes grew dark. “No. You did. Your father knew this version of the timeline, Aislen. He knew you would change it. That’s why he drew the map.”
He released his embrace and went to Aislen’s truck. He came back to her with the map and the amulet. He opened the clasp and placed the amulet back around her neck, pressing it against her chest. “Keep this on. You are going to need it.”
She looked down at it and back up into his face, not understanding.
He opened the map. “You need to get to this place here.” He pointed to the glittering spot on the map that matched the varicolored gemstone in her pendant. “Your father will meet you there and take you some place safe.”
“I don’t understand. If I changed everything, why do I have to go?”
Raziel’s eyes grew even more sullen. “Because you didn’t change everything, Aislen.” He brushed her hair out of her eyes and traced the contours of her cheek. Aislen had a distinct feeling that he was memorizing her face.
“The 8 still know about you. And Troy was tasked with hunting you down…hunting us down. He got to them first.”
; “Because I told him about it?”
Raziel shook his head. “No. Because Lange did.”
Aislen sucked in her breath. Raze continued. “The very next day, before you ever got to work, Lange told Troy everything and got him to buy into his scheme right away. Troy went straight to Grant and The 8. In the new timeline, I was on the run the next day. Finding my way to you–to kill you, for ruining my life. But that was never meant to happen either. You and I were always destiny, too.”
Another red cyclone appeared on the distant horizon, moving steadily toward them. Aislen felt an intense shudder of fear turn in her stomach.
Raziel looked down at her, knowingness all over his face. “You need to go now, Aislen. Go to this spot on the map and let your dad come for you there. But you need to leave now. I will take care of this.”
Aislen looked at the approaching storm and back at Raziel. “Come with me! We can go together!”
Raziel shook his head. “No, I can’t. That is not my path.”
“Why wouldn’t it be your path? If you and I are ‘destiny’? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Our destiny was for me to protect you until you were capable of taking care of yourself. You are now, Aislen. It’s time for you to go.”
He pushed the map into her hands. The pain in his eyes was raw, but he was resolute.
“But you can still do that! You can come with me! Protect me until I get there!”
Raziel looked over his shoulder. The dust devil was approaching fast. He looked back at Aislen.
“Aislen, please listen to me. There isn’t time for that. I am going to take care of this, handle it once and for all. If it works, I need to find my way back into Demesne. In the new timeline, I never destroyed it. So it still exists. It’s still operational, so it can continue to be utilized. I can’t live with myself if what I have been doing all this time can continue to happen to innocent people.”
The crunching sound of the 4x4 could be heard now, and the silhouette of the car in the cloud could be seen.
Raziel took Aislen’s face in his hands and looked into her eyes. “If I succeed at this, I will come find you. I promise. If I don’t, you need to know, I love you. Remember that.” He pulled her lips to his and kissed her fiercely. An overpowering voltage coursed between them and through her, welding his energy with hers so she couldn’t possibly ever forget.
Then Raziel charged his space with a frigid vengeance and pushed her toward her car.
“Go now, Aislen!” he roared at her as he marched in the direction of the advancing threat.
Aislen watched as the black four-wheel drive skidded to a stop. The door opened and Troy Kellen stepped out. He was dressed all in black despite the searing heat: a vision from Raziel’s past, a new version of a Control Operative. Only this model was an assassin carrying a power-pistol on a shoulder sling.
Troy slung the handgun into his hand and pointed it at Raziel. The barrel was over a foot long, the steel sparked in the sun, and the electric blue laser beamed right at Raze’s forehead.
“Stand aside, Raziel. She is coming with us.”
Aislen, please go now! Raziel said to her.
Aislen moved toward her car.
“Don’t you dare, Aislen,” Troy said. “I will blow his fucking brains out if you even think about it.” Troy looked back to Raziel. “How do you like being the powerless one now, Raziel? Feels good, doesn’t it?”
Aislen, it doesn’t matter. Get in the car and go!
Troy looked at Aislen with a twisted smile on his face. Don’t even move, Troy said. This baby will turn Loverboy here into pulp, and you will be covered in it.
Aislen froze.
The passenger door of Troy’s vehicle opened, and someone got out.
“Now, now, Troy, let’s not go scaring her. We will catch more flies with honey.” It was Sigmund Lange’s voice, but it was Blake who stepped into view from behind Raziel’s car with the swagger of a man that knew everyone bent to his will.
Blake looked at her with Sigmund’s milky eyes. Hello, Poppet. How I have missed you.
Aislen thought she would faint from shock. She stumbled backward two steps. A cold hand grabbed her by the shoulder and froze her into place.
Steady now, dear, she heard Sigmund whisper in stereo in her head. This won’t take too long. You have made this far too easy for me. One Timewalk too many, I suppose. You finally managed to change something that helped me.
Tendrils of Sigmund’s glacial energy fingered into her brain, following the networks he had already mapped.
Now be a good girl and let…me…IN!
Aislen’s entire neural network turned to ice, and she was about to lose consciousness. But she had her own energy this time and coalesced every atom of it into herself. Before Sigmund’s energy could snuff her out, she exploded it like a bomb in her brain. The force of it not only threw Sigmund’s energy out of her brain, it also threw Blake’s body off balance from 30 feet away and stirred up a cold wind in the desert.
Sigmund quickly righted himself and started laughing, a maniacal shriek of pure delight. “Beautiful, Ashlyn! Aren’t you a wonder! A fucking masterpiece! I am so going to enjoy using your body for my pleasure!”
A cold hand was back at her scalp again, caressing her head and playing with her hair. I will have you, Poppet. I created you. And I will have you one way or another. Even if it’s the hard way.
The hand moved to her throat and clenched her windpipe. Blake’s body fell to his knees, and he started gasping for air. Sigmund was strangling them both.
I’m not going anywhere without taking someone with me. I will kill you both, but I am pretty sure your lover will resuscitate you regardless of who is actually in your body.
The hand squeezed tighter, and Aislen could barely gasp for breath. She pooled her energy together again, grabbed some of Raziel’s energy as well, and shoved Sigmund out once again. Gasping for air, she watched as Blake’s body was lifted off the ground three feet and slammed onto his back. Sigmund’s energy was on top of Blake’s small frame, holding him to the earth as he choked the life out of him. The tendons and veins in Blake’s neck bulged.
Aislen, are you really going to let this boy die in the desert? Is that who you have become? Sigmund taunted her.
“Help me, please!” It was Blake’s voice crying for help, the thin wail of a child through the collapsing larynx of his throat.
Aislen, don’t do it, Raze pleaded in her other ear. Don’t let him have you! Let Sigmund Lange die with Blake.
Troy started laughing, clearly impressed with the show.
Aislen looked at Raziel, then back at Blake who was beginning to turn blue. Sigmund was right; she couldn’t let a child be murdered over her.
All right! STOP! she screamed at Sigmund. I’ll make you a deal.
Blake stopped choking, but his face was forced sideways, still implanted in the dirt, looking at Aislen, his eyes milky white.
“Go ahead, I’m listening,” the possessed Blake said.
Aislen, please, Raziel begged.
Aislen closed down her telepathic channels to Raziel, locking him out.
I’ll let you in, she told Sigmund. But on my conditions.
“Still listening,” Blake’s body said.
Let Blake and Raziel go.
“That’s it?” Sigmund rasped, incredulous.
“That’s it,” Aislen said.
Blake’s body sprung up off the ground, landing on both feet. “Deal!”
Immediately, Sigmund was at her skull again. But this time, Aislen opened up to him, allowing the icy tendrils to flow into her brain uninhibited. She could feel Sigmund’s unadulterated glee as he flooded her mind and body, filling her with his essence.
She looked at Raziel one last time, hoping he could see just how sorry she was, hoping he knew she was doing this for him. She watched Blake wilting as Sigmund’s life-force drained from him and into her. As the last bit of Sigmund emptied out of him, just before his eyes turn
ed from milk to blue, Blake turned to face Troy.
“Kill him,” Sigmund said, just as Blake fell back into the dirt.
Troy smiled. “My pleasure.”
He turned to look at Raziel, and a deafening shot rang out across the desert.
Forty-Five
Aislen’s body collapsed in a heap on the ground. Blake lay face down in the dirt, as well. Troy was on his back, lying in a pool of thick blood that turned the earth black. Raze was the lone person left standing in the Red Centre.
In her final moment of consciousness, Aislen had shot Troy in the chest with the shotgun, sacrificing herself for Raziel. And now, Raze wanted to die. He looked down at her body, torn. He wanted to run to her, lift her from the earth and will her spirit back into her own flesh.
But she had willingly let Sigmund in. She had given him total permission. Once allowed in, the only thing that would get him out was her own body’s death. Raze would not be the one to kill her body, even if she wasn’t the one possessing it. Aislen was lost to him now.
If this were his world, he would destroy it: annihilate the desert, scorch the sky. But it wasn’t his world. It was Sigmund Lange’s.
Blake Parrish rolled over in the dirt, moaning as his own life-force started pulsing through his body fully again. He got up on his knees and slowly looked up to Raziel.
“Hello, Mr. Raziel. Am I dead now?”
Raziel shook his head. “No, Blake. You are not. But you have a decision to make. You can come with me, but I don’t know where we’ll end up or if we'll ever be able to come back. Or, you can take your chances with…” He looked at Aislen’s crumpled body and back at Blake.
“She is Ichiban now,” Raze continued. “You are still useful to him. He won’t hurt you, but he will try to use you for whatever he has planned, or he’ll keep you around as a backup plan. If you choose to go with him, you get away from him as soon as you can. Scream in an airport or run to someone and say you’ve been kidnapped. Do whatever it takes to get back to your family. Your dad will be waiting for you at home.”
Time Walker: Episode 2 of The Walker Saga Page 29