Mercy (The Guardians Series 1)

by Wendy Saunders

  ‘I know,’ she replied in a small voice as she stared down at the blanket, ‘but why would he want to turn a demon loose? That’s the part I just don’t understand.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Look I’m going to head back to the station and go back over the cases.’

  Olivia nodded quietly.

  ‘There’s one more thing Olive,’ he took a deep breath, bracing himself for her reaction, ‘I’m going to pull your mom’s file.’

  ‘What?’ she frowned, ‘why?’

  ‘To see if they missed anything,’ he answered, ‘just think about it, what if your dad is the killer and maybe she found out.’

  ‘You think that’s why he killed her?’

  ‘I’m not sure yet, but Captain Macallister mentioned that he was there the night your dad was arrested and that he was ranting something about demons and a devil’s trap. I’m going to check out your dad’s arrest record as well. It’s all connected; we just need to figure out how. Now that Walcott is not here to hinder us we might finally have a chance to do that.’

  She nodded mutely, not trusting her voice.

  ‘I’ll check in on you later,’ he leaned over the bed and dropped an affectionate kiss on her head, his eyes met Theo’s for a second and a silent understanding passed between them. He would not leave her side again, not until Walcott was in custody.

  Jake slipped from the room and Theo stood slowly, stretching his legs and easing the kink in his neck. He wandered to the window and stared out into the darkness. The sun had set and the sky was a great empty vastness, there were no stars tonight. It seemed the heavens were as black as his mood. No matter what he did he couldn’t shake the image from his dream, of Olivia lying on the ground bleeding, on crisp white snow deep in the heart of the woods. They were running out of time, he could feel it.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ he heard her ask sleepily.

  ‘Nothing my love,’ he murmured turning back to her, ‘you should get some sleep.’

  He was just dimming the lights and removing some of the cushions propping her up when they heard a small polite knock and a nurse popped her head around the door.

  ‘Sorry to disturb you but I’ve got some more flowers that were delivered to the front desk. Can I bring them in?’

  Theo nodded and she disappeared, reappearing moments later with a vase which held a bouquet of stunning deep blue tulips.

  Olivia forced herself upright in bed, staring at the flowers with wide eyes.

  ‘They’re so unusual,’ the nurse settled them on the table at the foot of the bed, directly in Olivia’s eye line. ‘I’ve never seen them this colour before, they must’ve been dyed. I’m afraid there was no card with them.

  She turned and smiled at Olivia.

  ‘I’ll just let you get some rest then.’

  She disappeared back through the door and clicked it closed behind her.

  ‘What is it?’ Theo asked as her face paled.

  ‘They’re from my father,’ she murmured.

  The memory seared through her mind white hot and without warning and for a brief heart stopping moment she was back in the house the night her mother died. She gave a gasp, dragging a deep lungful of air in and as her breathing settled and she could focus again, she saw Theo was staring at her with troubled eyes.

  ‘He was holding them, the flowers,’ her voice was so quiet he almost missed the words. He came home that night holding them in his arms, a big bouquet of them, they were mom’s favorite. He was smiling, I was sitting on the stairs with Truman and he winked at me and held his finger to his lips to shush me, he wanted to surprise her.’

  ‘He didn’t intend to kill her,’ Theo spoke quietly moving closer, ‘you told me that night you woke because you heard them arguing and you came downstairs.’

  ‘I did wake because I heard arguing and I crept downstairs,’ she shook her head trying to clear her thoughts, ‘but I know I was sitting on the stairs when he came through the door.’

  ‘Then who was she arguing with if it wasn’t your father?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ she tried to remember; ‘I followed him into the kitchen.’

  ‘What happened?’ Theo sat on the bed beside her, taking her arms gently in his hands, ‘Olivia if you saw him come through the door and you followed him into the kitchen that means you saw everything; you saw the murder.’

  She shook her head, trying to block out the pain. In her mind she could see the flowers strewn across the floor their stems snapped and their delicate petals crushed, turning a darker shade as they absorbed the blood they lay in.

  ‘Olivia,’ Theo spoke more firmly as she became lost in the panic of an eight year old child, ‘what happened next?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ her desperate gaze locked on him, ‘I don’t remember.’

  She shut her eyes against the onslaught of images, the blood was everywhere, it was all over her hands and the flowers, the overwhelming sickly scent of them was choking her and she couldn’t breathe.

  ‘Get rid of them,’ she whispered brokenly, ‘please.’

  He slid off the bed, scooped the flowers up and disappeared from the room. She could still smell them; her heart pounded in her chest and she could see her mother lying on the floor in front of her. All the pain and heat went straight to her hands and with it came a shocking realisation.

  When Theo came back into the room, the look she gave him was filled with utter devastation.

  ‘It was me,’ her voice was so low he had to step closer, ‘it was me all along,’

  ‘What was you?’ he sat on the bed next to her.

  ‘The fire was my fault, I couldn’t control it. All the hurt and confusion and heat went straight to my hands,’ she looked up at him as a tear slid slowly down her cheek, ‘I started the fire.’

  ‘Livy love,’ he whispered cradling her face gently in his hands as another tear slid down her face, ‘it wasn’t your fault.’

  ‘But I started the fire,’ she shook her head.

  ‘Livy,’ he forced her to look at him, his expression grave, ‘they were already dead. It made no difference.’

  ‘They were already dead,’ he repeated more softly.

  ‘Stay with me,’ she whispered.

  ‘Always,’ he murmured.

  The first sob escaped as he pulled her into his arms and drew them both down on to the bed, holding her tightly. She felt as if she was flying apart at the seams and the only thing holding her together in that moment was his arms. Unable to hold it in any longer she buried her face in his chest and cried as though her heart were breaking. They were so wrapped up in each other neither noticed when the first few errant flakes of snow descended in the darkness outside her window.

  Chapter 26.

  Olivia stood at the window, staring out as the snowflakes drifted down on ghostly wings and settled onto the thick blanket coating the ground. Beau fidgeted in her arms reaching up and licking her jaw as she stroked his soft golden coat. Putting the puppy down she watched as he ambled over to his cushion in front of the fire. He climbed on top of it padding it down by turning in circles until he finally settled down, tucking his paws under his face and regarding her with big brown eyes.

  Turning back to the window she stared out with a hollow gaze. They were almost out of time; Theo’s premonition put the last and final murder after the first snowfall. The problem was, without a definitive timescale to work with, they had almost no hope of stopping her father from raising the demon.

  Frowning to herself she wandered back to the shabby old couch and dropped down, folding her legs underneath her. Beau, excited at the prospect of snuggling scrambled up next to her and plopped himself down. Stroking his head absently she picked up Hester's Grimoire from the small coffee table and laid it in her lap.

  It was a big heavy book, bound in thick dark leather and inlaid with intricate designs. The pads of her fingers traced the triple moon design on its face and down to the ornate
ly inscribed tree of life beneath it. As it had before, the book rippled beneath her fingertips like it was shivering at her touch and when she opened it the whisper of the dry crackling pages sounded like a sigh, as if it had been waiting for her somehow.

  Once again the black curly script swirled across the page until it formed words she could read. Written in the same handwriting as Hester’s journal she felt a profound sense of connection. So far she had been the only one able to read Hester’s Grimoire and it made her feel as if she were bound in an intensely personal way to the ancestor she’d grown up hearing everyone talk about.

  Flipping idly through the pages her gaze once again rested on the spell Hester had created to trap the demon. She’d read it and re-read it many times but half the words didn’t make sense. Sighing in frustration she was about to turn the page when she noticed the illustration in the top right hand corner. It was a crescent moon but it seemed to be facing the wrong way, like a mirror image. Turning back to the previous page there was a large inverted ‘c’ at the top of the page. With her mind working furiously she looked across to the left hand page. There was another large ‘c’, this one facing the correct way, and on the page before that another crescent moon facing the right way.

  Very carefully and not quite believing what she was considering doing to such an old valuable document she folded the pages inwards so that the two ‘c’ shapes met and formed a circle, then she folded in the two pages either side so that the two crescent moons were placed either side of the circle. She suddenly found herself staring at a hidden illustration of a triple moon and beneath it the words, which had not made sense before, were now perfectly aligned.

  She scanned down the now familiar handwriting to the message it revealed.

  ‘On a night under a blood moon, when the moon overpowers the sun, shall the door be opened.’

  Under a blood moon, she chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. A blood moon…a full lunar eclipse…it had to be, during a full lunar eclipse the direct sunlight would be completely blocked by the earth’s shadow. The only light seen would be refracted through the earth’s shadow and it would appear red, like the sunset. Frowning in concentration she re-read the message.

  When the moon overpowers the sun, she rubbed her forehead, careful to avoid the bruising. The moon overpowers the sun, she mused, a day when the night was longer than the day maybe…the solstice…the winter solstice. Jumping up from the couch so abruptly Beau yelped and scrambled across the worn cushions, Olivia strode purposefully over to the desk and opened her laptop. Bringing up the current lunar calendar for the year she realised there would be another eclipse the night of the solstice. If there had also been one the night Hester originally trapped the demon that would mean…she brought up the lunar calendar online for 1994.

  ‘Son of a bitch,’ she breathed.

  If she was right the final murder and the raising ritual to free the demon Nathaniel was going to take place on the winter solstice, under a full lunar eclipse. That would mean they only had five days left.

  Abandoning her laptop and picking up Hester’s Grimoire she started searching once again, there had to be something in there which would be of help because the next time she faced her father she was going to be prepared.

  Theo stopped mid brushstroke and cocked his head, listening intently sure he’d heard someone at the door.

  ‘Olivia,’ he called out to her but was met with silence.

  The knock came again loud and impatient.

  Sighing in frustration he dropped his paintbrush down on the table along with his palette and rubbed his paint smeared hands on the front of his jeans as he stepped out into the hallway.

  The pounding came again.

  He yanked open the door after checking the peephole and stepped back allowing Jake to stride into the hallway, stamping the snow off his boots.

  ‘Took your time,’ he pulled his gloves off, ‘it’s freezing out there.’

  ‘What are you doing here? I thought you were with Erica tonight?’

  ‘I am, but Olivia asked me to stop by.’

  ‘She did?’ Theo frowned as he eyed the package under Jake’s arm, ‘what’s that?’

  ‘The reason she asked me to stop by presumably, where is she?’

  ‘The library last time I checked,’ he turned and headed in that direction with Jake trailing wet footprints behind him.

  Olivia looked up from her book as Theo entered the room.

  ‘Good you’re finished,’ she began until she realised Jake was standing behind him, ‘oh, you’re here too, that means I won’t have to repeated myself.’

  She glanced down to the snow melting at his feet.

  ‘What, you couldn’t take your boots off first?’ she frowned.

  ‘’It’s been a long day Olive,’ he sighed, ‘here; these are what you asked for.’

  She took the package from him, slipping the items from the plastic bag and unwrapping them to reveal two rather large hunting knives.

  ‘What do you want those for?’ Theo asked in confusion.

  ‘It’s a project,’ she set them down on the desk; ‘you guys might as well make yourselves comfortable, we’ve got things to discuss.’

  ‘Alright,’ Jake dropped down in the nearest chair, ‘what’s going on Olive?’

  ‘I know when the last murder is going to take place,’ she leaned back against the desk as Theo took a seat on the couch and Beau jumped into his lap.

  ‘What?’ Jake sat up straighter, ‘how?’

  ‘Hester’s Grimoire,’ she replied, ‘there’s a hidden message. It basically says the trap can only be opened on the winter solstice under a total lunar eclipse. According to the book there was one the night Hester trapped Nathaniel, there was also one back in ‘94 when the original murders took place but obviously the ritual couldn’t be completed because my dad was arrested and missed the eclipse. I’ve checked and we’re due one this solstice.’

  ‘Damn it,’ Jake swore.

  ‘Uh what’s a lunar eclipse?’ Theo asked.

  ‘It’s a…’Olivia stopped and closed her mouth frowning, there was just no short and easy answer to that, especially not to a person who has no working knowledge of planets and the solar system. ‘You know what, that’s an explanation for later, let’s just say it’s a special event that doesn’t happen very often, especially not coinciding with the solstice. I take it you know what the solstice is?’

  Theo nodded.

  ‘That only gives us five days,’ Jake answered.

  ‘I know,’ she replied, ‘which means if we want to catch my dad we’re going to need a plan.’

  ‘How about you’re not going anywhere near the woods, that’s a plan,’ Jake said pointedly.

  ‘Jake, don’t start,’ she sighed looking at Theo, ‘I suppose you’re going to side with him on this.’

  ‘I also, do not think it is a good idea,’ Theo replied. ‘You said it yourself; your father requires your blood to complete the raising ritual. Taking you into the woods would be unwise.’

  ‘Look if he really wants my blood, trust me he’ll come after me himself, but to be honest he doesn’t actually need me dead, just some of my blood. They could have quite easily taken some from me while I was unconscious in Walcott’s cabin for all I know.’

  ‘But we don’t know that for certain,’ Jake argued. ‘I say we call in Captain Macallister and the others and on the night of the solstice we’ll go into the woods, armed, and arrest him.’

  ‘That’s not going to work Jake.’

  ‘Why?’ he replied stubbornly.

  ‘Because the last time I checked I’m the only witch in this room,’ she snapped irritably, ‘and my dad is a witch unless you’ve forgotten and he is extremely powerful. You won’t stand a chance against him. Only I can stop him.’

  ‘You can’t expect us to put you in harm’s way,’ Theo responded.

  ‘You don’t have a choice,’ she answered angrily, ‘in
five days time after sundown my father is going to be in those woods killing some other innocent guy and raising a demon. If we have any chance of stopping him it’s going to be me.’

  Both of them stared at her silently. She could tell they knew she had a point but they didn’t want to admit it.

  ‘Look,’ she sighed reaching deep inside to find her rapidly thinning patience, ‘we don’t have a choice, none of us do. I am the only one who has the power to stop my father. We cannot risk him turning a demon loose.’

  ‘But you are asking us to risk you,’ Theo spoke quietly.

  ‘There is a risk yes, but that’s what I have you two for,’ she looked back and forth between both of them. ‘We started this together, the three of us and it is going to take the three of us to finish it. I know you want to protect me but we don’t have that luxury. Welcome to the 21st century. I’m not a damsel in distress, God damn it I’m Xena and I’m telling you I can do this.’

  ‘Who’s Xena?’ Theo whispered to Jake.

  ‘Oh man,’ he clapped him on the shoulder, ‘you are in for a treat. I’ll bring over the box set when all this is over.’

  Olivia rolled her eyes.

  ‘So are we agreed?’ she asked carefully.

  Jake looked to Theo, something passed silently between them and finally Theo nodded slowly.

  ‘Alright Xena,’ Jake sighed, ‘why don’t you tell us what you have in mind.’

  Three days passed and Olivia spent every waking moment buried in either Hester’s Grimoire or her journals and when she wasn’t doing that she was studying the dusty old books on magic in her library. Growling in frustration she slammed another book closed and tossed it onto the growing pile of discarded volumes. She couldn’t find any reference to a raising spell which would require five male victims with body parts removed. That was the one thing she didn’t understand. In order to open the devil’s trap her father simply needed Hester’s original spell, which he would have had access to while he was married to her mother. After that it would be a case of re-creating the spell itself and reversing it. He shouldn’t have needed to kill anyone; it just didn’t make any sense.