The Black Madonna (The Mystique Trilogy)

by Traci Harding

  ‘Quite the entertainer,’ Talori commented.

  ‘Apparently there are numerous science tents all around showing similar demonstrations,’ Vespera enlightened us as she flicked through the program.

  I looked around at all the amazed and excited faces. ‘He really has created something here.’

  My sights came to rest on Killian, caught up in a throng of curious and adoring fans. Fourteen years older than the last time I’d seen him, he was even more handsome: the long hair that had once hung in his eyes had been shorn into a crew cut, and his dress sense was casually classy.

  ‘We may never get to speak with him, however,’ I said. ‘That crowd is ten people deep.’

  ‘No problem.’ Talori put on her large sunglasses, which made her appear even more the wealthy heiress, and strode over to the crowd. As those in the crush saw her coming, they were captivated by her regal air and parted to make way for her. ‘Thank you so much,’ she repeated graciously as she moved to the front of the line. Once there, she threw her arms wide. ‘Chris, darling!’

  For a moment our target was stunned by the beauty before him. Talori had to lower her sunglasses before he finally placed her, and then he nearly choked on the shock.

  ‘Oh my goddess, it’s you!’ He laughed, over the moon to see her. ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘We’ve come to help you, my love.’ She patted his cheek and directed his gaze in our direction. Vespera and I waved.

  ‘Well,’ he was so caught off guard he didn’t know what to say, ‘that’s wonderful!’ His eyes were fixed on me, and a shy smile crossed his face as he excused himself from the crowd to come and greet us. ‘Mia.’ He held his hands out to me and kissed both my cheeks—it seemed some of his French mannerisms remained with him. ‘I’ve been anticipating this moment for fourteen years.’

  I was flattered by his attention, as I was the envy of every woman present, and painfully aware of the clicking of cameras all around us.

  ‘I thought you’d have forgotten all about me by now.’

  ‘Does anyone forget their greatest inspiration?’ he said sweetly.

  Feeling my cheeks beginning to flush, I directed his attention away from me. ‘You remember Ajalae,’ I said, indicating Vespera, whom he greeted warmly. ‘And Susan, of course.’ I picked names from their past lives; it wasn’t wise to use our staff names whilst doing fieldwork.

  ‘Of course,’ he said with a delightful grin as Talori allowed him to kiss her hand. ‘Well, ladies, would you do me the honour of joining me for lunch? It seems we have much to discuss.’

  ‘I thought you’d never ask,’ Talori said, taking hold of one arm. Vespera took the other. I suspected they sensed that the man’s adoration made me a little uncomfortable.

  I was surprised to see that the paparazzi hung back and respected his space; perhaps Chris Molier hadn’t reached the high level of fame I’d imagined and was still a minor celebrity in the eyes of the press.

  Over lunch in the park, during which no one bothered us, I asked Killian about the lack of media and fan harassment.

  ‘There are times when I open myself to the attention of others and times when I don’t,’ he replied. ‘The reason I’m not harassed is because I don’t wish it…this is my reality, after all.’

  ‘Bravo,’ Talori said, raising her glass of sparkling water to him.

  ‘Still, I feel your work has made a difference to everybody’s consciousness on Earth,’ he went on. ‘Even the paparazzi aren’t as aggressive as they used to be…they’re much more respectful of the feelings of others. You have all made my job a hell of a lot easier…so cheers!’ He raised his glass of water and toasted us in return.

  All through lunch the conversation centred around Killian’s science projects, especially those concerning photo-sonics, biochemistry and microbiology. Some of it was interesting to me, but most of it was very technical and lost me—partly because I was inwardly flustered by Killian’s adoring gazes across the table.

  ‘When we’re done here, I’ll introduce you to the respective heads of the departments you’ll be assisting, if you like,’ Killian suggested. ‘My entire team is here.’

  Talori and Vespera were very receptive to the idea, until they realised it would leave me alone with Killian. They both looked at me with pleading faces, requesting permission to abandon me.

  ‘Don’t worry about Mia,’ he assured them. ‘I have something special I want to show her.’

  ‘I look forward to it,’ I said with a smile, and in truth I was curious to catch up with all that had transpired in his life between his escape into 2003 and now.

  ‘You know that disappearing act you pulled in Nova Scotia landed me in some hot water,’ I said as we strolled through the project to wherever it was Killian was taking me. The smile left his face for the first time since our reunion. ‘Until we got back to 2017 and I got patted on the head for letting you go,’ I added.

  His broad smile returned. ‘Did you think I would disappoint you?’

  ‘No,’ I said firmly, ‘I didn’t.’

  ‘But your husband assumed the worst?’

  ‘He’s…protective,’ I said.

  ‘With a family such as he has, I can’t blame him,’ said Killian, bearing Arcturus no malice. ‘The truth is, I wanted to make you proud of me,’ he went on a little shyly. ‘You’ve become something of a mother figure to me.’

  Mother figure! I was so relieved to hear this.

  ‘No offence or anything,’ he said, misreading my expression. ‘I know that seems a little silly now that I look older than you do—’

  ‘No, no,’ I assured him. ‘I understand completely.’

  ‘I meant a mother figure in a spiritual sense,’ he clarified.

  ‘I realise that…and I have to say, I am proud of you. You’re doing really wonderful work here. Finally, Molier’s money is being put to good use.’

  Killian laughed at the private joke, for only the staff of Amenti knew about his shift in identity. ‘I’ve invested the entire fortune into the project. Thankfully, others believe in my work too and have brought their own funds and resources to the enterprise. Now it’s kind of self-perpetuating; since we’ve had so much success in lowering crime, sickness and abuse in the cities we’ve worked in, we’re being invited to other cities, all expenses paid! I’ve trained people to begin Peace Projects in other countries too, so we have affiliate groups working in India, Africa and Bosnia. There are only a few cities left on my list that I’m going to have to do some fancy negotiating to get into.’

  ‘Your list?’ I enquired, then became distracted by the sight of an old phone booth in the corner of the large marquee we’d just entered. Its windows were reinforced with blue metal screens.

  ‘Can I get you a cuppa?’ Killian motioned to the tea- and coffee-making facilities in the marquee.

  ‘I’m good, thanks.’ I approached the oddity, noticing that it even had a light on the top. ‘Is this a replica of the Tardis?’ I asked. ‘I used to watch the Doctor Who series as a girl.’ I reached out to open the door and the light on the top began flashing and an alarm went off.

  After having a brief laugh at my expense, Killian walked over and touched the structure. The alarm went silent and the door clicked open—it sounded more like a bank safe opening than the door of a phone booth. ‘Proof that Lugh Lamhfada has a sense of humour—this is his contribution to my cause,’ Killian explained as he waved me into the dark space with him.

  Once the door closed behind us, the lights came on, illuminating a control centre with huge monitors connected to microcomputers all around the room, all of which were performing different functions.

  ‘This is amazing.’ I was more impressed by the structure than its contents. ‘This is the kind of thing I’d love to be designing—what an amazing example of etheric engineering.’

  ‘I knew you’d appreciate it.’ Killian moved to a control in the centre of the room—it looked a bit like the Klieo’s holographic console, altho
ugh it was operated by a keyboard instead of a telepathic plate. ‘As you’ve already guessed, this is an etheric interior inside a physical shell,’ he said. ‘The Artemis—’

  ‘Greek goddess of light,’ I cut in, liking the name.

  ‘I always thought you were rather like Artemis—quick to defend the powerless from unjust treatment,’ Killian stated and I had to laugh.

  ‘I wasn’t Artemis,’ I assured him, ‘but I was killed by her brother Heracles once.’

  ‘Mad!’ Killian said with a laugh. ‘So, as I was saying, the Artemis doesn’t move through time and space, but she’s a wonderfully efficient way of moving my operations base around. She’s completely mobile and—’

  ‘—and you leave her sitting in a tent in Central Park?’ I couldn’t believe he’d risk such a precious thing being stolen.

  Killian waved off my concern. ‘Mia, you are so last dimension. Get with the times! The people in this time line you created are much more trustworthy. Besides, the Artemis will only open or move for me.’

  ‘She’s attuned to your personal sonic,’ I deduced.

  ‘Exactly. Now, you asked about my list.’ He punched a few commands into the control panel and a holographic globe of the world appeared before us, its surface overlaid by patches of shadow and light.

  ‘It’s monitoring consciousness,’ I said as I realised that the brightest patches on the globe were where our Signet stations were located.

  ‘Frequency, yes,’ he said. ‘My hot list of cities the Peace Project must visit is derived from my prior knowledge of spook world operations and this monitoring system. Some sites are obvious as they’ve seen so much bloodshed: Jerusalem, Vietnam, Tibet—’

  ‘I would have expected Belfast to be worse,’ I commented, noticing that it appeared clear of shadow.

  ‘We’ve already been through Ireland and closed down the dark vortex there,’ he said, grinning triumphantly. ‘There were a few surprises in the dark porthole stakes though.’ He pointed to a very dark patch over Italy.

  ‘Oh my goddess, I know the Romans did some terrible things there in ancient times, but…?’

  ‘Illuminati,’ he explained. ‘One of the primary portholes to Irkalla is located there, beneath the Vatican City.’

  When I thought about this, it made sense. Back in her days as Ashlee Granville-Devere, Solarian had had a run-in with a Holy See official from the Church of Rome who had been taken over by one of the Nefilim. And in my own past life experiences I had seen, at the very least, an information alliance between the church and the spook world.

  ‘Jeez,’ I whistled at the size of his ambitions, ‘that is going to require some fancy negotiating skills. Have you been visited by any of your old Underworld associates?’

  ‘Not directly, but I have had death threats and there’ve been a few assassination attempts. They’ve had no success though, and it’s all been great press for me.’

  My gaze wandered off to the other screens around the outer walls of the round chamber—one of which was monitoring the exterior of the Artemis. I saw that a woman had entered the tent. She was very good-looking and was dressed all in black leather.

  ‘Killian…sorry, Chris, I think someone’s looking for you?’ I pointed to the woman. ‘Do you know her?’

  ‘Not yet,’ Killian smiled. ‘Shall we?’ He motioned to the door.

  ‘I think I’ll go into security mode.’ I vanished from his sight. ‘If that’s all right by you?’

  ‘Works for me…after you.’ He opened the door and shut the lights off.

  I stepped aside once we’d left the Artemis. Killian looked at the beautiful stranger, who was obviously seeking him out as the look on her face was one of awe and relief.

  ‘Are you looking for me?’ he asked hopefully.

  ‘Killian,’ she said, and my heart nearly stopped beating. I was sure his must have skipped a beat or two as well, but he played naive.

  ‘It’s me,’ she said. She looked around to check no one could see her and transformed into her true Anu self.

  ‘Ereshkigal!’ Killian was completely delighted for the second time today, but the woeful look on the Anu woman’s face tempered his joy. ‘What brings you here?’ he asked. ‘Is something wrong?’

  She resumed her disguise and forced a smile. ‘I decided to take you up on that dinner date.’

  He wasn’t buying her story and raised both eyebrows to appeal for the truth.

  ‘I can’t do it any more,’ she said in quiet distress. A human would have been sobbing by this point but the Anu rarely shed tears, even under the greatest duress. Nevertheless, her entire body was trembling. ‘Ishtar’s disappearance has left a lot of bored males in Irkalla. When I only had to deal with Erragal’s unwanted attentions, that was one thing, but they’ve done things to me…’ She couldn’t bring herself to expand on this. ‘I just can’t do it any more, I’m losing myself. Please help me…’

  ‘It’s okay.’ Killian hugged her and she melted into his embrace as if she had finally come home. ‘We’ll take you to Lamhfada.’

  ‘No,’ she said quickly, ‘not yet. I want to stay with you.’ She hugged him tighter. ‘I have dreamt of little else for what seems an eternity.’ She raised her big soulful eyes to him and kissed him passionately.

  This is uncomfortable, I thought. Almost as if he detected my discomfort, Killian brought the steamy moment to an end. ‘I’ve thought about you too, believe me,’ he said, ‘but now isn’t the time—’

  She kissed him again, and with such desire that he either forgot or didn’t care that I was present.

  As they were in the throes of expressing their feelings for each other, I got to wondering: how had Ereshkigal escaped? She couldn’t use Dexter’s porthole, and she hadn’t contacted any of her Anu kin or the staff of Amenti. I glanced back to the star-crossed lovers just in time to see the lady in question activate an Orme spike from her wristband.

  I had disarmed the weapon and restrained her in an arm lock before Killian even realised his bliss was over.

  ‘That would explain why they let you out,’ I said. ‘An assassination.’

  Killian looked stunned when I showed him the weapon. He detached it from Ereshkigal’s wrist and asked her why she’d done it. He was hurt to the core and I was very surprised not to see his dark side surface.

  ‘I told you, they did things to me,’ she defended, appearing as horrified as we were by what she had intended to do. ‘I knew they’d done something to my mind, but I wanted to get out so I didn’t ask any questions. I swear, I never told them we’d met…not consciously, I swear it! I didn’t know you were my target.’ She collapsed into tears, trembling violently.

  ‘She’s telling the truth,’ Killian said, seeming very sure about it. ‘I too was sent on assassinations I didn’t know about until after the fact. Get her into the Artemis.’

  ‘She’s too much of a security risk like this,’ I said. ‘We need to take her to Susan and Ajalae.’ I almost tripped over the names, not yet used to my sisters’ undercover identities. ‘They should be able to straighten her out, or at least assess the risk factor.’

  ‘In that case, let’s get her to my hotel,’ Killian suggested, and I agreed that was a better idea.

  ‘I’ll do it—best you don’t attract attention to yourself,’ I advised. ‘You get Susan and Ajalae and meet us there.’ I held out my hand for his room key. ‘The Ritz-Carlton?’ I said as he handed it over, and raised both brows at him, very much doubting he’d sunk all the Molier money into the Peace Project. ‘It’s a very nice reality you’ve created for yourself.’

  ‘Hey,’ he defended, ‘that’s where they put me. It has great views of the park. Who am I to argue? That would just be rude.’ He grinned, then placed a hand on Ereshkigal’s head. ‘You’re safe now,’ he told her, and her entire body relaxed as he poured healing energy into her via his palm.

  She took a deep breath, then her eyes opened and she smiled beatifically. ‘Oh my goddess, that was amazing!’
She turned to Killian, seeing him in a whole new light. ‘Oh my lord,’ she gasped and fell to her knees, ‘you are the vessel of the Sanat Kumara. He is here, fighting the good fight.’

  Both Killian and I attempted to hush her.

  ‘Forgive me, lord, but I feared you would never come back for us. I live only to serve you.’ She bowed to the ground, weeping with euphoria.

  ‘Ooops, too much,’ Killian said with a grimace.

  It was obvious I had to get her out of here. I bent down to whisper in her ear. ‘If you wish to be of service, you can pull yourself together and walk out of here as though you never found who you were looking for. Can you do that?’

  She breathed deeply to regain her equilibrium and nodded to assure me she could.

  ‘Go,’ I instructed Killian, and he left us to fetch my sisters.

  ‘This is an inconvenient development,’ Talori commented, looking at the Anu warrior woman now lying sedated on Killian’s luxurious king-sized bed. We had stripped her bare and thrown all her clothes into the hot tub, to disable any tracking or surveillance devices that may have been planted in them. Her naked body was now covered by a fine foil blanket, which, Vespera explained, would block any microwave mind-programming signals that might be picked up by devices implanted in her body.

  ‘We really don’t need to be babysitting a psychotic double agent right now,’ Talori went on, ‘especially on the very day that we arrive on the scene!’

  ‘Your compassion is overwhelming,’ Killian teased her, having just joined us.

  ‘Do I tell a lie?’ she asked us all, and even Killian had to agree. ‘Our adversaries must be keeping close track of our timeline movements,’ she concluded, ‘if they’re aware of the day we departed this decade for 2003?’

  ‘They are,’ Killian cut in. ‘They were tracking the Blue Flame emissions from the Klieo when it disappeared in Australia to hook into the Montauk wormholes. Thanks to a piece of Mia’s hair in my possession at the time, I was able to follow the whole thing through her eyes.’ He made the confession openly, no longer blaming himself for the adverse things he’d been forced to do in order to escape the Montauk Project.