Another lunged straight for Jake but he dived and rolled across the snow, bringing his blade up and driving it into the creature’s gut, watching in satisfaction as it detonated in front of him. Mac, backed up against the shield, emptied his clip at the hound rushing straight for him. Bits of matted fur flew as the bullets bit into its dead flesh. He braced himself for the impact as it leapt but it suddenly exploded as Theo swung around and buried his knife between its shoulder blades.
Theo glanced across and caught sight of Charles Connell and Davis. As one hound leapt for Davis he shimmered and it leapt straight through him as if he were as insubstantial as mist. Davis’ flesh rippled and once again solidified as Charles raised his hand calmly and with a flicking gesture the hound exploded.
Jake jumped out of the way as another headed for him but it caught his jacket and pinned him to the ground on his stomach. Unable to plunge his knife into it at that angle, he growled in pain as it sunk its teeth into the back of his shoulder. Suddenly the pressure released and he felt rather than saw the creature explode and black ash rain down on him. A figure jumped nimbly over him twisting and skidding to a halt on the slippery ground and Jake’s mouth fell open.
Deputy Helga Hanson looked down on him with pale blue eyes. No longer in her bulky police uniform but clad in a form-hugging black, she appeared to look slimmer and more willowy than he’d originally thought. Her long straight white-blonde hair hung to her waist and caught on the winter breeze. She held a whip made from pure silver energy that pulsed in her hand. He watched momentarily stunned as another hound headed straight for her but she simply spun the whip over her head and brought it down in a smooth fluid crack, splitting the creature down the centre as it crumbled inwards into a pile of ash.
Olivia tried desperately to breathe in, unaware of the deathly struggle going on outside the circle. She watched as her mother ripped the heart from Thomas Walcott’s chest, heard him take his last rattling breath and there was nothing she could do to stop her. Isabel dropped the heart into a large glass jar and walked up to the dead tree where four sooty orange symbols glowed, melting the snow covering them. In the gap between the first and last symbol the ground began to churn upwards spilling over itself to reveal a gaping hole in the ground. She placed the jar in the hole and watched in satisfaction as the ground folded in on itself burying the jar and its gruesome contents. A fifth symbol glowed in its place and suddenly fire erupted, running in lines between each of the symbols, joining them to form a flaming pentagram.
Olivia’s head dropped back against the wet snow, saturating her hair as she gazed up numbly at the dark sky; the lunar eclipse moved into place and the moon burned red mocking her. Her eyes shifted as her mother’s face filled her field of vision.
‘Just tell me why?’ she whispered painfully.
‘Because I want what is rightfully mine,’ Isabel replied. ‘I want my birthright.’
‘Why kill those men?’
Isabel reached out and grasped Olivia’s shoulder sinking her fingers into the bullet wound, causing Olivia to scream in agony.
‘Because you don’t raise a demon without a leash,’ Isabel studied her fingers. They were coated with Olivia’s blood which ran down her skin and pooled in her palm. She rose to her feet and walked away from Olivia, pulling a knife from her cloak.
Olivia gritted her teeth and rolled to her side, gasping at the white hot pain of her wound which was bleeding profusely. She dragged herself along the floor, trying desperately to pull herself upright.
Isabel calmly sliced across her palm and watched as her blood seeped through the wound, mixing with her daughter’s. Pressing her palm to the bark of the tree she closed her eyes and murmured something too low for Olivia to hear.
‘No,’ she croaked, trying to reach her mother.
A deep groaning began beneath the ground she lay on; she could feel the tremors like the aftershock of an earthquake. Suddenly with a tremendous groan and a sharp loud splintering sound the tree split down the centre and peeled outwards in an explosion of flame and heat.
Theo rushed back towards the shield at the agonising sound of Olivia’s pain-filled scream. He’d watched helplessly as her mother had walked to the tree and touched it; he watched it split wide open belching fire and smoke. He knew what happened next, he’d dreamed it enough times, and if he didn’t get to her Olivia was going to die. The rage burst through his veins surging through him like adrenalin. He raised his fist to strike the shield as he’d done a hundred times before in his dream, but this time he’d forgotten he was still holding Olivia’s knife. He brought the blade down against the barrier and it sparked and buried itself in an inch. The area surrounding it cracked outwards like a spider web. Grasping the knife more firmly he braced his shoulder against the shield and pushed it in further. The shield was slowly giving, the crack spread outwards further, like glass slowly splintering under a great weight.
The black hilt heated beneath his touch until it was white hot, the lettering on the blade bursting into bright blue flame. He could feel the flesh of his hand burning but he refused to let go, his only thought to get to Olivia. The hilt of the knife began to soften and black tentacles snaked out and wrapped themselves around his hand like vines. It snaked further up his skin, entwining around his wrist and sliding under his sleeve, up his uninjured forearm to his elbow and further until he could feel it wrap tightly around his bicep. It squeezed tighter and tighter until he could feel it sinking into his skin, burning as it went but he kept on inexorably pressing forwards. The hilt had completely disappeared into his flesh now and the blue-black blade also began to liquidize and wind up his arm following the same path. His whole arm was burning, the knife had completely melted now and been absorbed into his flesh and it was now his own hand he pushed through the shield. Suddenly he felt it give and he ripped his way through.
Olivia watched as a naked reddened form slowly clawed its way out of the exposed carcass of the tree. He climbed to his feet, unconcerned with his nakedness. He stepped forward, the snow beneath his bare feet hissing and melting instantly at the heat from his skin. His gaze locked on Isabel and something seemed to pass between them. He turned to Olivia lying bleeding on the snow and walked towards her with agonising slowness.
‘Take one more step towards her Nathaniel and I will kill you.’
The demon looked up as Theo stepped in front of him.
‘Theodore Beckett,’ his black eyes narrowed as a smile tugged at his lips, ‘you caused me a great deal of trouble and I was most put out that I couldn’t carve my frustration out of your skin. I’m delighted to have another opportunity.’
Theo looked at the creature he had known three hundred years ago as Nathaniel Boothe. He didn’t look exactly like the Nathaniel he knew, the eyes were different, the hair a slightly different colour, the shape of his mouth was not the same, but regardless it was Nathaniel, he knew it deep down in his gut.
Suddenly he understood what Sam had been trying to tell them about not raising a demon in its true form. That’s why Isabel had killed those men and harvested their organs and tissue; she had been building the demon a body. But not just any body, it was a prison of flesh. As long as he was trapped in that human form he was at the mercy of the person who’d raised him. Isabel had bound Nathaniel to her but the question was why?
Nathaniel raised his hand and Theo felt a slight nudge as the Demon threw his power at him, but it seemed to be deflected somehow. Nathaniel growled and tried again, this time more forcefully but Theo didn’t move. Diana’s crescent moon grew hot against his skin underneath his clothes, the amulet somehow protecting him from supernatural power. Smiling he stretched his hand and flexed his fingers. He felt the black and blue metal seared into his arm suddenly flow back into his palm and coalesce back into a blade. The knife was a part of him now; he could call it forth at will. Nathaniel snarled and reached for Theo, intent on physically harming him but Theo brought his arm up and sliced across Nathanie
l’s chest under the Demon seal scorched into the flesh over his heart. Nathaniel stumbled back as the wound split open and bled.
‘ISABEL’ Charles roared as he followed Theo through the tear in the barrier. His eyes were blazing with fury as he beheld his wife for the first time in twenty years.
‘We have to go,’ Isabel gripped Nathaniel’s arm and pulled him away from Theo.
‘I’m coming back for you Theodore,’ he hissed darkly as he grabbed Isabel and they both disappeared.
The circle suddenly exploded outwards knocking everyone to the ground and flattening the trees immediately surrounding the clearing like dominoes.
Theo crawled over to Olivia and pressed his hand to her wound to stop the bleeding. He raised his head and found himself looking into the eyes of Olivia’s father.
‘She’s lost a lot of blood,’ he looked down at his daughter gently.
Jake and Mac approached Charles with their weapons drawn.
‘Put the guns down gentlemen,’ he looked at them calmly, ‘believe me I could disarm you quite easily.’
Helga and Davis appeared behind Mac and Jake with weapons of their own trained on the two men.
‘Looks like we have ourselves a little Mexican standoff; put your gun down Jake.’ He looked at the young man who’d run tame in his house as a child. ‘Trust me; you are going to want to hear what I have to say.’
‘Jake,’ Theo interrupted, ‘we need to get Olivia back to the house.’
Jake looked down at her and he nodded, holstering his weapon.
‘Let’s get her back to Louisa,’ his cool gaze locked on Charles, ‘and after that you have a lot of explaining to do Mr Connell.’
Chapter 28.
‘What the hell happened?’ Louisa looked horrified as Theo laid Olivia out on the centre island in the kitchen, her blood pooling on the tiled top.
She retrieved a pair of scissors and started cutting away her clothes to get to the wound, ignoring all the other people crammed into the small room.
‘She was shot,’ Jake replied as he scooped a whimpering Beau off the floor before someone tripped over him.
‘No shit Sherlock,’ she murmured as she tore away the material revealing a large hole in her shoulder, blood spilling out profusely. She grabbed a wad of surgical padding and pressed it hard to the wound. ‘Who the hell shot her?’
‘Her mother,’ Theo replied.
Louisa’s head snapped up to meet Jake’s gaze.
‘It’s true Lou,’ he answered angrily. ‘Isabel West is alive, I saw her with my own eyes.’
Trying to focus on her patient, she looked across at Theo standing on the other side of the island.
‘Theo, hold her tightly here and roll her towards you, I need to look to see if the bullet went straight through.’
He did as he was told and watched as Louisa examined the back of Olivia’s shoulder.
‘There’s no exit wound,’ she shook her head.
‘What does that mean?’ he asked in concern.
‘It means the bullet in still lodged in her shoulder,’ she swore. ‘I’m going to have to take it out; we need to get her to the medical centre.’
‘You can’t do that.’
Her mouth fell open as Charles Connell stepped into her line of vision.
‘Mr Connell?’
‘Hello Louisa,’ he smiled at her, ‘it’s been a long time.’
She shook her head trying to focus.
‘After this I’m going to need a really strong drink’ she muttered, ‘but the facts remain the same. I said I’d stitch up some superficial wounds, I never agreed to kitchen surgery. She needs proper medical attention.’
‘Every gunshot wound has to be reported to the police,’ Charles replied.
Her eyes darted around the kitchen before landing back on him.
‘By my count there are three cops standing in the kitchen right now, I think we can consider that well and truly reported.’
‘It’s not that simple,’ he shook his head as he removed his coat and laid it over the back of a nearby chair. ‘Right now Thomas Walcott’s mutilated corpse is lying in the woods. Olivia’s blood is all over that crime scene. Once he is discovered it will raise too many questions.’
‘Mr Connell,’ she answered in frustration, ‘look at her she’s lost too much blood, she needs a transfusion.’
‘And she’ll get one,’ he began to roll up his sleeve, ‘we’re the same blood type, give her my blood.’
‘This is crazy,’ she muttered as she turned to one of the boxes and rummaged around, coming up with a couple of sealed bags. ‘You’re really lucky I was so thorough when I stole the supplies.’
‘Right everyone out except Mr Connell and Theo,’ she shooed the others out of the room and slammed the door behind them. ‘Congratulations Theo you’re now my scrub nurse, go wash your hands with the bottle of antibacterial soap in the first box of supplies.’
He nodded and moved to the sink. Louisa turned back to Charles and wrapped a tourniquet around his bicep, tapping the inside of his elbow with gloved hands, looking for a vein. Satisfied she’d found a suitable one, she tore open one of the packets and inserted the needle into his vein, taping it firmly to his skin. Inserting the second needle into Olivia’s arm she attached a length of clear plastic tubing and watched as the blood started to flow through evenly.
Olivia obliged her by staying unconscious long enough for Louisa to remove the bullet and close the wound, dressing it tightly and placing her arm in a sling to support her shoulder. While Olivia continued to have a blood transfusion from her father, Louisa took the time to clean and stitch the wounds on Theo’s forearm and the back of Jakes shoulder. She also dressed and cleaned the one on Captain McAllister’s hand.
Wiping her forehead with the back of her hand she stretched her aching spine and moved back to check on Olivia, who had started to regain consciousness. Satisfied she removed the needles from both Olivia’s arm and that of her father.
‘Hey Sweetheart,’ Louisa murmured as Olivia’s eyes flickered open and slowly focused on her.
‘What happened?’
‘You got shot honey.’
‘I know that,’ she breathed, gasping in pain as she struggled to sit up, ‘I mean after, where’s my mom?’
‘I don’t know,’ Louisa shook her head, helping Olivia into a sitting position. ‘I’ve been busy fixing everyone up; nobody's had the chance to fill me in yet.’
‘Theo?’
‘I’m right here,’ he moved in closer and took her hand.
Her gaze swept over his shoulder and locked on her father who was watching her, his expression unreadable.
‘Why don’t we give you and Theo a moment,’ Louisa suggested, starting to feel uncomfortable. ‘Mr Connell?’
He nodded and followed Louisa from the kitchen clicking the door behind him quietly.
She turned to Theo as he cradled her face gently in his hands, taking her lips and kissing her deeply.
‘God,’ he broke away breathing hard and pressing his forehead to hers. ‘I thought I’d lost you Livy. I’ve never been so scared in my life; I didn’t think I’d get to you in time.’
‘But you did,’ she grasped the hand that held her face softly. ‘I saw you, when Nathaniel was coming for me; you put yourself in front of a Demon for me.’
‘I’d do it every single time,’ he whispered.
Suddenly she caught sight of his hand and pulled it away from her face, turning it over to get a better look.
‘What happened?’ she frowned, pushing up his sleeve to look at his arm.
Ribbons of blue and black starting at his palm were wrapped around his hand and twisted up his wrist and arm like a tattoo.
‘The knife you gave me,’ he muttered looking down at the now permanent markings on his arm.
‘It did this to you?’
‘It is this,’ he replied. Seeing her confused expression he tried
to find the words to explain. ‘I used the knife to break through the circle, it began to melt and it burst into flames. The metal melted and ran up my arm searing itself into my flesh; it’s a part of me now.’
‘Theo,’ she breathed shaking her head, ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Don’t be,’ he answered, ‘look.’
He stepped back and held out his hand. As it had before in the clearing when he was facing Nathaniel he felt the metal sliding and twisting down his arm to pool in his hand, once again forming the knife.
Olivia’s breath caught in her throat as she watched in fascination. Theo released his grip on the knife and it disappeared back into his flesh, leaving the strange writhing tattoo.
‘Wow,’ she muttered staring at his hand.
‘Yeah,’ he replied.
She was about to say something else but she broke off, hearing raised voices in the other room.
‘We’d better go deal with that’ she sighed,’ help me down will you.’
He lifted her gently, trying not to jolt her wounded shoulder as he slid her carefully to the floor.
‘Wait a minute,’ he disappeared into the laundry room and returned with one of his shirts, which fitted easily over her sling. He helped her into it and buttoned it over her torn clothes.
‘Thanks,’ she murmured, taking his hand they made their way towards the library.
As she walked into the room everyone fell silent and turned towards her. The fire as it always did burst cheerfully into flame at her presence. Her father watched in quiet interest at the dancing flames.
‘Olive,’ Jake breathed in relief, ‘are you okay?’ She nodded as she surveyed the other people in the room. Jake was flanked either side by Louisa and Mac who, other than the injury to his hand, seemed no worse for his unexpected initiation into her world. Her gaze tracked across the room to her father and the pale haired man next to him, finally landing on Deputy Helga Hanson. She looked different, not only did she seem slimmer and more feminine, but standing next to the man her father referred to as Davis she could see the startling similarities between the two tall elegant blondes.
Mercy (The Guardians Series 1) Page 45
