Once her mind was made up it took a surprisingly short amount of time before she found herself standing in a hospital room staring down at the guy who’d collapsed in front of her car. He was asleep, and although she’d worked up quite a head of steam on the drive from her house now she was standing there in his room looking down at his relaxed face she found the anger and frustration draining out of her. She knew she should wake him up, demand answers from him but she found herself standing there just watching him.
Her fingers twitched involuntarily, as if they wanted to reach out and trace the lines of his jaw. His hair was just long enough to curl slightly on the ends and was so dark, almost black. His skin, despite the slight bruising, was a pleasing golden colour, suggesting he was used to working out in the sun. Quietly moving closer, she found herself wishing he would open his eyes so she could see what colour they were.
He was covered with a sheet and hospital blanket but she could see he wore a white tee shirt which moulded to his firm torso and upper arms. Jesus, she almost licked her lips, either this guy was no stranger to a gym or he had an extremely physically demanding job. His forearm was bandaged and he had an IV attached to the back of his hand but other than that he didn’t look too worse for wear.
His lips parted slightly as he took deep even breaths and for a moment she envied him, he looked so at peace. Sighing lightly, she started to feel bad for the guy. No matter how pissed she was at the Chief for throwing that picture at her, she had no right to barge in here and accuse this guy of well, whatever she was accusing him of. She wasn’t even sure she knew anymore.
Feeling frustrated, she ran her fingers through her hair, causing more strands to loosen from the top knot and fall around her face. She didn’t know what the hell she was doing, it felt like from the minute she stepped back in town she had been confused and frustrated. Maybe she just needed to take a step back, get a good night’s sleep and look at the situation with fresh eyes.
She turned away from him and took a step back towards the door.
‘Wait,’ a soft gravelly voice stopped her.
The voice was low and sleepy and yet it coiled around her gut causing delicious sensations deep in her very core. Turning back towards that appealing voice she found him propped on one arm, awake and staring at her. His eyes were dark brown, that was all she could think, a deep dark brown that seemed endless.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,’ she spoke softly.
He watched her silently, as she moved closer to him and sat down in the chair next to the bed bringing her to his eye level. He didn’t feel threatening at all, despite the fact he didn’t speak, just continued to study her face.
‘I’m dreaming again,’ he sighed in disappointment.
‘Why do you say that?’ she asked curiously.
‘I see you in my dreams all the time,’ he murmured, reaching out his hand slowly towards her face, ‘but every time I touch you I wake and you are not there.’
It was like being woven into a web spun of gold and warmth and need. She found herself unconsciously leaning towards his touch, his voice was so foreign and yet familiar at the same time, as if something deep down inside her began to stir and wake recognising him.
His fingertips grazed her cheek lightly and he gasped, his whole palm gliding along her soft skin and cupping the side of her face.
‘You’re real?’ His whole arm jolted in surprise and she suddenly pulled back.
‘I um,’ she tried to organise her thoughts, ‘I’m sorry I hit you with my car, or not.’ She shook her head.
‘Did not hit you with my car,’ she clarified, ‘you were on the road outside my house and you just collapsed. You really shouldn’t be out in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, without adequate lighting you really could’ve been killed. You were really lucky I managed to stop in time.’
Vaguely aware she’d used the word really three times in the space of about four seconds she could hear herself rambling like a crazy person but to her embarrassment she couldn’t seem to stop the flood of random words pouring out of her mouth. He didn’t seem to mind though; he just sat watching her with the corner of his mouth curving into an amused smile, looking at her as if she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
‘Who are you?’ he asked suddenly.
‘I thought you said you knew me?’
‘I do know you,’ he replied softly, ‘I just don’t know your name.’
‘Olivia,’ she replied after a moment’s hesitation, ‘My name is Olivia.’
‘Olivia,’ he repeated, smiling.
‘Um, sorry,’ she shook her head, ‘how do you know me?’
‘I told you, I see you in my dreams all the time,’
‘Okaay,’ she inched back, ‘slightly creepy response.’
‘I’m afraid I am probably not explaining myself very well.’
‘I hear that’s common after a head injury,’ she murmured. ‘When you were brought in you had a picture in your pocket, a picture that looked a lot like me. Where did you get it?’
‘I drew it,’ he explained.
‘You drew it,’ she repeated slowly. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Theodore Beckett.’
She was shaking her head before he had even finished speaking.
‘No,’ it’s not possible.’
‘Olivia.’
‘No,’ she stood abruptly, ‘not possible.’
Olivia please,’ he reached out and grasped her hand as she turned to leave. ‘I know this is hard for you to accept, it was for me too at first but I think I was brought here because of you.’
‘I don’t understand,’
‘My name is Theodore Beckett, I was born in Salem Massachusetts in the year of our Lord 1667. I was in a burning building, a barn, the ceiling was collapsing in on me and I was trapped.’ He took a deep breath as he cast his mind back, ‘I was dying and then I was standing in the darkness, there was a man there, he saved me. He told me I had to find you, that you needed me.’
‘No,’ Olivia shook her head; panic gripped her as she yanked her arm out of his grip, ‘NO!’
She wrenched herself free and backed towards the door.
‘Olivia, please just listen,’ he yanked the blankets back and knocked a sensor loose, setting off the alarm on the monitor next to his bed. Ignoring the shrill noise he swung his legs over the side of the bed, his bare feet touching the cold floor. ‘Please just wait.’
He tried to take a step towards her but a wave of dizziness washed over him and his legs crumpled beneath him.
Two nurses rushed into the room and grasped him under the arms hauling him back onto the bed as she ducked out of the room and ran, his voice still ringing in her ears.
Chapter 10.
It had been almost a week since that night and things had been blessedly quiet. Brody Walker had still not been found but the Mercy police department seemed content to leave her in peace, for now at least. She’d managed to eat properly and get some sleep; she’d even managed to get some work done on her latest project.
The full moon had fallen two days ago and so she’d been able to perform the ritual for drawing down the moon, a simple spell but one that cleansed the spirit and filled her with the energy and power of the goddess. Since then she’d felt good, well rested and centered once more. There was just one problem. Theodore Beckett.
She sighed, why did all the good looking ones have to be crazy? And he was good looking, in fact it was more than that, he was beautiful. Not in a pretty kind of way more of a rugged manly sort of beautiful, with his dark hair and brooding eyes framed by long sooty lashes that were shamefully wasted on a man. Damn it, there she went again, why couldn’t she keep her mind off him for more than ten minutes at a time?
He had to be crazy; people didn’t just go around claiming to be three hundred and forty seven year old witch-finders unless they were mad as a hatter. The idea of time travel was lud
icrous. There was no other explanation, the guy was nuts. So why then did she feel so bad? To be fair she’d had a really stressful day and him claiming that he’d been pulled through time to help her was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Still, she shouldn’t have freaked out on him, poor guy.
She shook her head; there really was no point in thinking about him. There wasn’t anything she could do, okay so maybe she’d called Louisa a couple of times to check how he was recovering but he was fine now, sort of. Physically he’d recovered from his injuries but they couldn’t substantiate his real identity and he was not forthcoming with any other information which would aid in finding any friends or relatives of his. The more senior doctor had over-ridden Louisa and declared him to be suffering with a form of amnesia. They’d had him transferred over to Riverside Psychiatric facility on the outskirts of town to recover and she was sure he was being really well cared for.
Nope, damn it she still felt bad for him. Maybe she should go and visit him. To do what, she asked herself, what exactly was she going to do? Take him a muffin basket and spend a couple of hours discussing the finer points of seventeenth century history?
‘You know, you should consider he might be telling you the truth?’
The strange and unknown voice jolted her out of her silent reverie so violently she spilled her coffee, burning her hand as her head whipped in the direction the voice had come from.
A tall, broad extremely handsome man was sitting comfortably on the centre island in her kitchen. He had jet black hair that fell almost to his collar and startling blue eyes. Olivia’s mouth fell open.
‘Who the hell are you and how did you get in my house?’
‘I’m the guy who pulled Theo through time,’ he grinned with a cocky little smile.
Good lord the boy had dimples, her insides flipped as he threw that lethal smile at her. It took her almost sixty seconds of staring stupidly at him for his words to make it to her brain.
‘I’m sorry what?’
‘I’m the one who pulled Theodore Beckett three hundred years into the future.’
Great she thought, another good looking lunatic.
‘Okaay,’ she edged slowly away from him, reaching for her phone. ‘I’m just going to call my friend Jake.’
‘I really wouldn’t bother him,’ he shrugged casually; ‘I’ll be long gone before he gets here.’
Her eyes widened as she watched him momentarily disappear from his seat perched on the island and then reappear standing right in front of her. Her phone fell from her slack fingers and clattered harmlessly to the floor.
‘It’s not possible,’ she murmured.
‘Really Olivia?’ he smiled, ‘with all the things you can do with your power, you think there aren’t things in this world that defy conventional logic? We walk apart from this world, you and I. There is so much more out there for you to discover, all I ask is that you listen to what I have to say with an open mind.’
‘Who are you?
‘I’m a friend,’ he replied softly.
‘But I don’t know you, how am I supposed to trust you?’
‘I’m not asking for your trust, all I’m asking for is your attention, after that you can make your own decisions.’
‘Fine,’ she replied warily as she sank onto a nearby stool.
‘The first thing you should know is that Theo is telling you the truth. I pulled him out of time and brought him here.’
‘Why?’ she frowned, trying to make sense of it all. ‘Because you are going to need him, these murders are just the beginning.’
‘You know about the murders?’ The colour drained from her face.
‘Yes, and like I said they are just a small piece in a much larger puzzle. Something big is coming, something that will shake the very foundation of this world and you and your family are caught right in the middle of it.’
‘What?’ she tried to assimilate the information, ‘what is coming? And how is Theo supposed to help me?’
‘Olivia,’ he sighed, ‘I know it’s frustrating but I can’t give you all the answers. Some things you will have to figure out for yourself. I have limitations; I can’t risk polluting the time line any more than I already have. Haven’t you heard of the butterfly effect?’
‘But you’ve already polluted it by pulling Theo through time,’ she retorted, ‘I’d say that’s a pretty damn big butterfly.’
He smiled at her in amusement.
‘Stop throwing those dimples at me’ she snapped irritably. ‘I’m having enough trouble concentrating as it is.’
‘Olivia,’ he told her softly, ‘I pulled Theo out of a burning barn at the exact moment the beams collapsed, as far as history is concerned Theodore Beckett died in that fire. That time line is now closed. It’s not perfect but it’s as close as I could get it. You’ll just have to take my word for it, Theo is meant to be here and he is meant to help you. Do you remember when he said to you that he has dreamed of you?’
‘Do you make a habit of listening in on other people’s conversations?’ she frowned.
‘Only when it’s important,’ he chuckled. ‘Theo has been having dreams about you since he was a child, but not just about you, about a great many things. He has been looking through a window into your world for thirty years. He just didn’t realise at the time how important those dreams were. With his strict puritan upbringing he was taught that anything out of the ordinary was witchcraft or a curse of the devil.’
‘You’re saying that Theo has some sort of preternatural gift?’ she mused thoughtfully, ‘like precognition?’
‘Yes, but he has denied it for so long, denied his true nature that he has no control over it. He doesn’t know it yet but he needs you as much as you need him.’
‘Seriously?’ her tone was dead pan, ‘I’m supposed to teach him how to switch on his visions?’
‘Not exactly,’ he chuckled, ‘Theo still has the visions but you need to help him to accept them for what they are and you’re going to be up against thirty one years of being raised by a fanatical father who believed that he was constantly being tempted by the devil.’
‘Great,’ she muttered unenthusiastically.
‘What?’
‘A seventeenth century witch finder and a twenty first century witch? Call me crazy but it doesn’t exactly say match made in heaven to me,’ she replied dryly.
‘I’m sure you two will work it out,’ he shrugged, ‘but you need to cut the guy some slack. In his time they hadn’t even hit the industrial revolution yet and now he’s been picked up and thrown down in the middle of the technical age, I’m sure he’s finding the adjustment a little rough and he has no one to talk to. No one who won’t think he’s crazy at least.’
‘I do think he’s crazy,’
‘No you don’t,’ he smiled. ‘Just give the guy a chance, he might surprise you.’
‘You’re trying to make me feel bad,’ she muttered.
‘You already feel bad; I’m just offering you a solution.’
‘Why are you doing this?’ she asked him curiously.
‘Olivia,’ he hesitated, ‘I know that right now you don’t know me and you have no reason to trust me, but where I’m from I do know you and I owe both you and Theo more than I can ever repay.’
‘I don’t suppose you’ll tell me what that is?
‘No,’ the corner of his mouth curved into an amused smile.
‘Damn, I don’t like holding a trump card and not knowing what it is,’ she smiled slowly.
He wandered back to the centre island and picked up a manila folder she hadn’t noticed before.
‘You’re going to need this,’ he handed it to her.
Opening it up curiously she found a birth certificate, drivers license, social security number, passport and bank statement and credit cards and all of them were in Theo’s name.’
‘What’s all this for?
‘Theo is here more or less
permanently now; there is no way I can return him to his original time line without serious consequences and if he is going to survive here he will need a paper trail in case anyone starts looking. I figured the least I could do is let the guy keep his own name, after three hundred years no one is going to guess the truth. The bank statement and cards are real; he’s going to need some start up cash.’
Olivia’s mouth fell open.
‘There’s over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in this account,’
‘Like I said I owe more than I can ever repay,’
‘Where did the money come from?’ she asked suspiciously.
‘Don’t worry,’ he chuckled lightly, ‘It’s untraceable,’
‘And that’s supposed to make me not worry?’
He smiled regarding her with a genuine affection.
‘I have to go now,’
‘Can you at least tell me your name?’
‘It’s Sam,’ he threw her a last cocky smile, with the full force of his dimples, and disappeared.
Olivia sat for several moments staring at the empty kitchen, wondering if she’d finally lost her mind and the whole thing was an hallucination, except for the faint trace of his aftershave lingering on the air and the fact that she still clutched the envelope in her hand containing Theo’s new life.
She should probably wait a few days, give herself time to absorb the sheer insanity that seemed to be her life these days or at the very least figure out what the hell she was going to do with a three hundred year old hot guy.
Even if she managed to get him released from Riverside where was she supposed to take him? It wasn’t as if she could let him stay with her and she really didn’t want to burden her friends when she was only just getting to know them again. It was bad enough they’d inadvertently been caught up in a murder investigation; she didn’t need to be dragging them into the middle of a supernatural crisis. She knew they chose not to use their gifts, they didn’t embrace the power they’d been born with, but that being said, Jake was still a cop and when all was said and done she trusted him.
Mercy (The Guardians Series 1) Page 16
