“You can’t be claiming that your predictions are dispensable in the war.”
“It isn’t. But it is like thanking a sword for felling your opponent. The sword is a mere tool. It takes the hand of a great warrior like Alicia to wield it properly. And that is what I am to her- a mere tool, a weapon to be brandished to smite down enemies.”
He walked over to the stove and poured himself a cup of tea.
“And now, the time has come for her to destroy that very weapon that has guaranteed her victory. Because unlike a mere sword, I have a consciousness. She is scared that I might one day be used by somebody else to destroy her.”
“Will you?” Nainoru asked, a hint of desperation in her voice. “I…, I can try to convince Alicia to spare you and your family if you swear your allegiance to the Keepers of the Blades. Perhaps she will make you her trusted advisor.”
The Oracle gave her a disbelieving smirk. It was clear that he did not trust Alicia’s supposed benevolence. “I don’t believe for a second that Alicia wants me alive.”
The sheer awkwardness in the room threw Nainoru off. She fumbled with the hem of her skirt, unsure of what to do now that she had thrown the parasol down and had her motivations so calmly revealed.
It was the Oracle who spoke up then. “You will have to kill me to make the prediction come true.”
“Isn’t there an alternative, Oracle? I don’t want to have to kill you. Perhaps… perhaps I can bring you into hiding! I can…”
“Stop,” the Oracle said, raising his hand. He scratched at his chin and sighed. He picked up the handle of her parasol and smoothly unsheathed it. The silver blade within was held up to the light pouring in from the hole in the roof. Where the sunlight shone in, Yarra could see patterns on the blade; creepers and vines etched into the metal.
Without warning, he made a slit on his forearm using the blade. His blood ran like river along the cut, pouring onto the damp wooden floor. Nainoru yelled out in protest, her eyes welling up with tears. Yarra did not understand why she reacted in such a way when the wound was easily manageable.
“Why…?” Nainoru said weakly, staring from the wound on his arm to his face.
It was only then that Yarra realized that as the blood continued to pour, and the skin parted by the blade began to turn green and blue. The blade was poisoned, and it was slowly spreading within the Oracle’s body. From the wound, the vines crept underneath his skin, causing his body to etch itself with a vine-like pattern where the poison started to exert its effects.
“My… my only request,” he gasped and sputtered, blood starting to pour out his mouth, “… is that you leave my family alone. Alicia will try to kill them too, but I have already warned my wife. She will be gone beyond your reach now.”
Just as he said that, the loud booming sound of a ship leaving the port came.
The sound made the Oracle smile. “That ship is heading to our former colonies, with my wife and children on it.”
Nainoru nodded, unable to stop the tears from falling down her cheeks. “I will tell Alicia that they were gone before I arrived. She will not know of their departure.”
The Oracle nodded. The blade was dropped as his body became weaker by the second. Slumping against the wall, he gasped, knowing that he did not have much time left.
Yarra saw all, her hand covering her mouth in horror as her heart and chest felt like it was twisting into a knot.
“And one more thing…,” he said, beckoning for Nainoru to come closer. He struggled to maintain the volume of his voice, almost rasping. “…I have seen your future.”
Yarra saw Nainoru gulp in anticipation. “Alicia will doubt your credibility one day, and you will be forced to run away from the Keepers of the Blades. One day, perhaps two centuries from now, a young girl will come to you with questions of her identity. She will have powers like mine.”
“Who is she?” she asked in hushed tones. She held on to the Oracle’s hands, his blood pouring onto her gloves and dress.
“She is to be my descendant,” the Oracle replied. “Tell her the existence of this day. If she is my true great, great-great-great-great granddaughter, she will have the ability to come back to this day and relive my memories.”
Just before he died, the Oracle looked over Nainoru’s shoulders and looked directly at where Yarra was standing. He winked at her, acknowledging the possible presence of his future descendant. And then he was dead.
Chapter-5
Answers
When Yarra came to, her body was drenched in sweat. Never had she had a vision so long, and it had exerted physically and mentally. Nainoru was still sitting in her armchair, waiting patiently. Though this was the present version, Yarra could not un-see the younger Nainoru with the beautifully rouged cheeks and bright red lipstick; the vestige of once exquisite good looks in the now ancient-looking woman in front of her.
“What did you see?”
Yarra told her everything, from being in 18th-century England, right up to the moment when the Oracle killed himself with her blade. After she was done, the older lady sighed slowly.
“For almost two centuries, I held on to that secret. Now, I can die happy knowing that his prediction came through. It was amazing how he predicted something two hundred years into the future. That one day, his descendant would come knocking on my door for answers.”
This made the girl with precognition smile. At last, some of the missing puzzle pieces to her life had surfaced, and although the whole jigsaw was still incomplete, she roughly knew the picture that she was trying to piece together. The answer to her heritage was in a completely different continent.
“What about my mother?” she asked, remembering the Oracle’s wife and two kids. “Did you try to track them down when you came here?”
Nainoru shook her head. “It was my promise to him that his descendants would never be bothered. A hundred years after that incident, I realized that Alicia Selleck and I would never see entirely eye to eye. She was intent on killing off all magical demi-humans; elves, other vampires, werewolves, Magis and gargoyles, and she was almost unstoppable once set on that path.”
“But… Avice said that she believed in the preciousness of human life.”
“Think about it for a second, Yarra. You are a smart girl with precognition. Once the other demi-human races are eradicated, that would put the Keeper of the Blade vampires as the only demi-humans in charge on Earth. What do you think Alicia Selleck is going to do then?”
Yarra bit her lip and looked at the dying fire. Her skin still felt clammy from the earlier regression. She tried to focus her energy to form future visions to answer Nainoru’s questions, but her mind went blank. Nothing surfaced and only a sensation of fogginess was persistent. A sharp pain shot across her left temple to her forehead, and she grimaced in shock.
“Don’t force your precognition too much, Yarra. You have already used your abilities too much today.”
“Do you think she will try to rule over the humans?” Yarra asked, ignoring the pain.
“I don’t think it. I know it. Alicia Selleck has had this plan put into motion the moment that Schaila Selleck died. She has been slowly whittling down the other races of demi-humans. When there is only her clan left standing, she will be victorious.”
“Which explains why she wants me dead.”
Nainoru nodded. “You represent all that she detests. A demi-human who has the power to see the future. To see her for what she really is. Such abilities, just like the Oracle said, can be both useful and detrimental to her.”
Yarra gripped her fists. “She used me. She used me to predict the outcome of the war, and when she was satisfied, she sent Avice to get rid of me.”
“Just like how she sent me to get rid of the Oracle. History has a funny way of repeating itself.”
Chapter-6
Sealing their love
When she entered the guest bedroom, Avice was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Discarding her clothes, she sid
led up next to him underneath the cover. His body was warm to the touch, her hand tracing along the tattoo till it stopped on the now broken, rusty hilt, the mark of his betrayal to his clan. He took in a sharp breath, the muscles of his abdomen tensing as she settled her hand over them.
“I am a vampire without a clan…,” he said, more to himself than to her. “What good am I, if I am without a clan?”
She had no answer for that question. A year into their courtship, one thing was apparent to her. Avice loved his parents, and had always been loyal to the Keepers of the Blade. But now, he had chosen her over the family he had once known. And they were not the forgiving kind, to condone his betrayal or to consider looking into his motivations for doing so.
“Are you having second thoughts about running away with me?” Yarra asked. She ignored the look of shock on his face. “Because, if you want to go back to them, I will not fault you.”
“What?” he exclaimed. “No, don’t be crazy! I’m just… I’m just confused!”
He got up, his naked body moving towards the window. She saw the tenseness of his muscles undulating under his flesh before her very eyes. With one arm on the glass window, he rested his head against its smooth, cool surface.
“All of my life, I looked at my mother as someone to emulate. She was all I ever wanted to be like. Strong, decisive, caring towards the well-being of the clan. But now… today… I learnt that things are not what it seemed with her. It isn’t I who betrayed her. It is she who betrayed my trust!” he thudded one fist against the wall.
Yarra got out from the bed. She did not have the proper words to console him. All she had was her body and soul, and that was what she gave him. Pressing her naked body against his back, she clasped her hands around his chest.
“I will neither betray, nor look at you lesser than you are, Avice Selleck,” Yarra said, her head resting on his shoulder blade.
That night, she proved it to him. As she rode on top of him, she was gifted with yet another vision. It was of one where she was patting a slight bump in her belly, laughing at something that Avice had said. In the vision, she could smell his perfume and the strong coffee that he held in his hand… knowing that the more intense the vision, the more likely it would become true.
When she came out of the vision, Yarra knew then that when Avice came deep within her, she would have conceived their first child by tomorrow morning.
Chapter-7
A new plan
“Where will you go now?” Nainoru asked, placing a plate of waffles on the table for the two castaways. She watched them with amusement as they wolfed down the breakfast. But, they had been on the run, so their ravenous hunger was more than understandable.
“Gnskskghgopp somffee,” Avice said, Yarra was horrified that her lover did not have the decency to swallow his food first.
Nainoru however, chuckled and poured them each some coffee. “Never had the patience to speak with his mouth empty,” she tutted lightly, the chiding more mocking than serious.
“Sorry,” Avice said with a smile. The sex with his mate last night had cleared up his mood slightly, and the sight of a homely breakfast made them feel right at ease. Yarra too, could not help but eat the food with apparent relish, afraid that it might vanish if she took her time. After showering in rest stop toilets yesterday where they had a patina of dirt and sleaziness that seemed to rub off, she was ecstatic to see the glowing bathroom fixtures in Nainoru’s home. Never had she spend so much time in a bathroom, appreciating a good hot shower. A mixture of a comfortable bath and the breakfast had lightened their moods considerably.
“What I meant was, we might make a trip to the previous Oracle’s hometown,” Avice said. Yarra explained to him what she had seen in a past memory. He was keen on piecing back together Yarra’s past, as much as she was. Perhaps it would give them a better control over her precognitive and regressive abilities.
“I don’t know if it is a good idea,” Nainoru said. “If I know Alicia, she would have probably stationed a few of her members at the Oracle’s hometown, knowing full well that you will go there sooner or later.”
“We might have to risk it. Alicia can’t stop us from going there.”
Yarra’s resolution was impeachable, and Nainoru knew that. Sighing, she threw her hands up in the air in defeat, sitting down between them at the dining table. The weather that morning was sunny and optimistic after the dreadful thunderstorm they experienced the night before. Birds were chirping outside, and the couple was intent on making their mark on the new day. Nainoru was well aware that she was not going to be able to talk them out of going to England, no matter what she thought of their plan personally.
“I don’t know the place exactly, but it is in the town of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. It is a coastal town,” Nainoru said.
The couple nodded. It was a good place to start- the birthplace of the previous Oracle.
“Thank you for your help, Nainoru,” Avice got up then, embracing his former clan member.
The old lady had removed her gritty, bitter self, and there was a warm smile on her face. Although she was reluctant, she was glad to have helped Yarra at least. It was her way of making amends for Alicia Selleck’s mistake two centuries ago.
“Be careful. Your mother…,” she poked Avice on the chest, “… is a damn smart woman. I would not put it past her to be already waiting for your mugs to show up in that small town. Strangers are always more easily noticeable.”
“Then we will be careful,” Avice said with finality.
Yarra too, got up and embraced Nainoru. “Thank you… thank you for everything. If we had not met you, I would not have begun to know my roots.”
Nainoru smiled. “As the previous Oracle once said, all is already predetermined for us. His job was to only report what he saw in the future, and his predictions were a hundred percent right.”
“But… I get too many flighty images most of the time. Some end up not becoming true at all,” Yarra said. For once, she felt overshadowed by her predecessor, whose precognitive abilities easily overpowered her own. “Sometimes, I am too scared to even choose which path to take, because there are so many.”
“When all else fails, and when you have too many roads to go choose from, always choose the one closest to your heart,” the old lady advised. “It was the same thing that the Oracle used to tell me when I went to him to get his predictions.”
***
“How are we headed to England?” she asked. They were walking down the road with disguises on, that they had managed to improvise. Yarra had dyed her hair a pale maroon color and wore shades. Avice used his abilities to make his hair grow past his shoulder, which he let down. The blonde hair was colored into a brownish red, which made him look tremendously different, yet still visually appealing.
They knew that the disguises only served as a temporary measure. Some of the vampires in the clan could and would still be able to smell them from a mile away.
Heading to the bus stop from last night, they planned to take a bus to the nearest airport and go from there.
“Don’t worry about that,” Avice smiled. “I have a plan.”
The walk to the bus stop was uneventful. The convenience store still had one hole through its glass where their assailant had fired a shot. Avice looked around and smelled the air.
“No-one familiar. Let’s go,” he said to Yarra, as they crossed the street.
The hub was packed today with people, some holding their luggage. The bus depot offered a discounted service straight to an airport twenty miles away, which suited the couple just fine.
“Wait, let’s go into the store,” Avice suggested, while they waited for the bus.
Yarra followed him in. There was a different cashier in from last night, but just like the other, she was hooked on to the show on her four-inch portable television.
“What happened there?” Avice asked innocently as he placed his soda on the counter and surveyed the damage
The cashier
barely looked up from the screen and answered nonchalantly. “Oh, some asshole tried to rob this place last night. Fired a shot through the glass.”
“Was he caught?” Yarra asked, mocking fear.
“Nawww, he was pinned underneath the bookrack,” she pointed at the now upturned rack Avice had pushed on their attacker. “But he came to at some point and escaped before the cops got here.”
Avice nodded and paid for the drink. So their attacker had managed to flee the scene. He was not surprised. The man was a vampire, and could have easily killed the cops if he wanted to, but that went against the code of the Keepers of the Blades. His lips were curled slightly in deep thought, and he held Yarra’s hands as they walked out of the store.
Love Beyond the wall (A Rizer Pack Shifter Series Book 1) Page 47
