Crossroads

by Wendy Saunders

  She drew her legs up his thighs, past his hips until she was wrapped around him like a pretzel. He growled and set the pace faster and grasping her leg he hooked it up over his shoulder. She was so close; she could feel it just dancing out of her reach. Her body arched and yearned towards it as his hips ground against her. It built viciously in her core and when she couldn’t hold on anymore she let go and clamped down hard. Jake gasped in pained pleasure and fell against her, his hips slowing as he drew out the last of the pleasure, until they collapsed in a sweaty pile of limbs and gasping bodies.

  ‘Jesus Christ’ Jake panted, ‘you’re bendy.’

  ‘Yoga,’ she managed to gasp out.

  ‘God bless whoever invented it,’ he laughed against her skin, burying his face into her neck and breathing her in deeply as she chuckled against him.

  The insistent ringing startled Jake out of sleep and he fumbled on the nightstand for his phone.

  ‘Jake here,’ he mumbled as he pressed his face back into the pillow.

  ‘Jake?’ Mac replied, ‘you still asleep? I figured you’d be up by now’

  Jake lifted his head and stared at the blinking numbers on the clock by the bed. It read 9pm.

  ‘Jesus,’ he rolled over and scrubbed his hand over his face. He’d slept most of the day away.

  ‘Listen,’ Mac continued, ‘I need to speak to you about something important. Can you come by the station?’

  ‘You still there?’ Jake frowned.

  ‘Yeah,’ Mac replied tiredly. ‘Oh and I want to speak with Veronica, so find her and bring her with you if you don’t mind.’

  ‘No problem.’

  He hit the disconnect button. Dropping his phone back down on the nightstand he rolled over, at least he didn’t have to look far to find Roni. He smiled as he wrapped his arms around her warm naked body and pulled her in closer, nipping her shoulder gently with his teeth.

  She sighed and rolled into him, snuggling sleepily against him.

  ‘Who was that?’ she yawned.

  ‘Mac.’

  ‘Umhum…’ she drifted back off to sleep.

  ‘Roni,’ he smiled shaking her slightly.

  ‘What?’ she murmured.

  ‘It’s nine o clock.’

  ‘Humm.’

  Suddenly her eyes flew open and she sat up abruptly, the covers pooling around her waist.

  ‘Nine? what in the evening?’

  ‘Uh huh,’ he replied enjoying the sight of her naked body.

  ‘Damn it,’ she hopped out of bed and pulled her robe on.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Beau will be starving by now which means he’s probably chewed through everything in sight.’

  He watched in amusement as she yanked the door open and disappeared into the other room. He let loose a small chuckle when he heard her voice.

  ‘Bad dog! Bad!’

  Rolling out of bed himself with a yawn, he reached for his pants and pulled them on. His stomach growled loudly and he realized with a frown he hadn’t actually eaten in over twenty-four hours and he was ravenous. Perhaps it was just as well Mac had woken them up. This way they could grab something to eat, see what Mac wanted to speak to them about that was so important, and with any luck he could seduce Roni back into bed by eleven, eleven-thirty at the latest. Smiling to himself he pulled on the rest of his clothes.

  Mac looked up as Jake opened the door and strode in, with Roni following behind him yawning slightly.

  ‘Still don’t know how to knock then?’ he asked dryly.

  ‘Hey you invited me,’ Jake smirked.

  ‘Take a seat both of you,’ he said seriously.

  ‘What’s going on Mac?’ Jake suddenly frowned at the Chief’s expression.

  Once they were settled in the chairs in front of his desk he rose and began to pace slowly. ‘It seems we have a bigger problem than we originally thought, the five victims of this Charun or Soul Collector or whatever you want to call him.’

  ‘Five?’ Roni interrupted in a startled voice.

  ‘I didn’t get the chance to tell you earlier, but there have been another two victims admitted to the hospital with the same symptoms as the others,’ Jake told her seriously.

  ‘Who are they?’

  ‘The Baxter twins.’

  ‘Ted and Jan Baxter’s girls?’

  ‘You know them?’

  She nodded. ‘Jan volunteers at the museum. Jesus the girls can’t be more than eight years old.’

  ‘I know,’ Jake replied soberly.

  ‘God. He’s taking children now?’

  ‘They’re not the first,’ Mac replied quietly.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Mac turned and picked up a tall stack of files and dropped them on his desk. Picking up the first one, ‘Juliet Smith age 62, Georgetown deceased’. He picked up the next one, ‘Loretta Johnson age 16 Georgetown coma of unidentified causes’. He dropped it and picked up the next one, ‘Aaron Williams age 43 Georgetown coma, Della Jones age 38 Georgetown deceased, Derek Brown age 47 Lawrence deceased, Adrian Taylor age 19 Lawrence coma, Joley Wilson age 4 Andover deceased, Lewis Anderson age 87 Boston deceased, Lilly Martinez age 15 Boston coma.’

  He continued picking up file after file and dropping them on the desk.

  ‘Lawrence, Andover, Ipswich, Cambridge, Boston, North Reading, Quincy, Weymouth, Plymouth…the list goes on. Unexplained deaths with no known cause, comas of unidentified causes leaving the patients on permanent life support. Over one hundred and thirty-four victims so far and that’s just the ones we know about. Forty-seven fatalities and all the others still in comas. This son of a bitch has been hunting the whole of Eastern Massachusetts.’

  ‘What?’ Jake frowned as he began to pick up random files and leaf through.

  ‘The first one we can trace it back to, was February. This bastard has been stealing souls for months.’

  ‘February?’ Roni frowned, ‘that would put the time line at roughly around the time the gateway was left open. He must’ve been one of the first to come through.’

  ‘Exactly, and he was either powerful enough, or clever enough, not to get dragged back through when it was closed.’

  ‘There could be a lot more victims than this,’ Jake frowned as he continued to look through the pile.

  ‘I know’ Mac replied, ‘which is why we have to do something and soon. Where are we at with contacting Olivia and Theo?’

  ‘We harvested the willow during the full moon last night,’ Veronica told him, ‘that was the last thing we needed. We’re pretty much ready to go.’

  ‘Good,’ Mac nodded, ‘contact Fiona and set it up for tomorrow. I’ll be there too and then we’ll see if there’s a way to kill this son of a bitch.’

  Chapter 14.

  The shaking gradually subsided and Theo crawled out from under the table, followed by Olivia and Bridget.

  ‘That was worse than the last one’ Olivia frowned, as she looked around at the devastation.

  Furniture was broken or overturned, and pots, bowls and plates had crashed to the floor and lay in pieces. But the worst of the damage was the main beam which had started to split and bowed alarmingly. Bridget surveyed the damage with a calm detachment, her gaze drew up to the ceiling and her eyes narrowed on the broken beam. Olivia and Theo both watched in wonder as the beam heaved itself back into place with a resounding crack and smoothed out as if it had never been damaged.

  ‘How did you..?’ Theo began.

  ‘It’s this place Theo,’ she told him, ‘if you can imagine it you can make it real.’

  She bent down and picked up an overturned chair before retrieving her broom and beginning to sweep up fragments of pottery.

  ‘If you can make anything you want happen can’t you just…I don’t know…wish it all clean? I mean why clean up at all?’ Theo asked curiously.

  ‘Why do anything?’ she shrugged, ‘Why cook if I don’t have to? Why
clean? The answer’s simple Theo, because I want to. Because I enjoy it.’

  ‘Why would anyone enjoy that?’ an amused voice spoke from behind them.

  Olivia turned around and caught sight of Sam who was sitting comfortably in one of Bridget’s chairs with a cocky smile on his face.

  Bridget’s eyes narrowed in annoyance. ‘You,’ she made a small sweeping gesture with one hand, ‘out!’

  Sam suddenly disappeared and after a moment there was a loud banging on the door.

  ‘Hey! How did you do that?’ Sam’s muffled voice came from the other side, ‘I can’t get back in.’

  Bridget walked casually over to the door and opened it.

  ‘Yes?’ she replied, ‘can I help you?’

  ‘Why did you throw me out and how?’

  ‘Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to enter a witch’s house without permission?’ she glared at him. ‘This is my home and you will not enter it without first asking. It’s not only arrogant, it’s just plain rude.’

  He blinked as he took in the sight of the irritated woman before him. A small smile played at the edge of his lips.

  ‘You’re right,’ he replied, ‘it was rude of me, I apologize. I’m Sam, a friend of Olivia’s and you are?’

  ‘Bridget,’ her lips pursed as she studied him.

  ‘Bridget,’ he held out his hand and as she took it reluctantly he smiled at her, his dimples winking to life. ‘There, now we’re friends.’

  ‘Is he always like this?’ she turned to Olivia.

  ‘Pretty much.’

  ‘I suppose you’d better come in then,’ she sighed in resignation as she stepped back to allow him to pass, but as she was about to close the door behind him something caught her eye. She stepped slowly out onto the porch and looked out at the lake.

  The strange dark patch of sky Olivia and Theo had witnessed earlier had now grown. It stretched down to the lake, half of which was now missing. It looked like it had been cut in half and the furthest section of the lake and all the trees surrounding it were just gone. The water lapped and tipped over the edge into nothingness, like the old Norse concept of the edge of the world.

  Bridget heard a gasp and a sharp intake of breath behind her and turned to find Olivia staring wide eyed, with Theo and Sam flanking her.

  ‘What is it?’ she asked quietly.

  ‘The Void,’ Bridget cast her gaze back to the terrifying emptiness. ‘It is the space between worlds.’

  ‘What is inside it though?’

  ‘A vast well of nothingness’ she shrugged, ‘infinity? Who knows? Why do you think we use the gateways between worlds? They are like bridges across the Void, you cannot simply punch a hole in the fabric of the world and cross into the next.’

  ‘What would happen if you did?’

  ‘You would fall,’ Bridget turned back to Olivia. ‘All I know is anyone who has ever fallen into the Void has never returned.’

  ‘But why is it here?’ Theo asked.

  ‘I suspect the destruction of the Crossroads has caused much damage. All of our worlds exist as a delicate system of sets and balances. If something happens in one, all are affected. It’s like an underwater earthquake in your world would cause Tsunamis which would affect several different continents and cause great devastation. That is what is happening here. The destruction of the Crossroads has torn a hole in the skin of this world, exposing it to the Void.’

  ‘Is there any way to stop it?’ Olivia asked, her brow creasing in worry.

  ‘No,’ Bridget shook her head, ‘the damage is done and it’s permanent. It’s contained for now but if any more Crossroads fall, the tear will expand consuming everything in its path until this whole world is gone.’

  ‘We have work to do then’ Olivia straightened her back, her eyes filled with a firm resolution as she turned and headed back into the cabin, followed by the others.

  ‘First we need to locate the gateway to the Underworld,’ Theo answered as he wandered into the cabin behind her.

  ‘I might be able to help there.’ Sam replied, jumping up and sitting on the edge of the table.

  ‘Does that look like a seat to you,’ Bridget asked coolly.

  ‘Sorry,’ he muttered contritely as he slid down and sat in one of the chairs.

  ‘Do you mean you can help with that?’ Olivia asked. ‘Do you know where the gateway is?’

  ‘No’ he shook his head, but that’s what I’ve been doing since the first earthquake. I’ve been searching for it.’

  ‘I wondered where you’d got to,’ she murmured.

  ‘I’d have stopped by but you were,’ he glanced at Theo and grinned, ‘busy…’

  Olivia blushed and cleared her throat.

  ‘So what did you find?’

  ‘I think I’ve narrowed down its location’ he turned his gaze back on Olivia, ‘a concealed gateway has a different feel than everything else, almost like a different resonance. If you know what you are looking for you can detect it.’

  ‘And you know what to look for?’ Theo asked.

  ‘That’s right,’ he nodded.

  ‘Okay, so the next question is when we get to the Underworld how do we find the Crossroad? And more importantly how do we find the one where Nathaniel and Isabel are?’

  ‘Hades said once I got to the other side of the gateway I had to use the compass,’ Olivia replied.

  ‘Compass?’ Bridget repeated.

  Olivia slipped her fingers through the chain and slid it from her shirt. Pressing the little golden button, the lid flipped open to reveal several complicated circles within circles. Bridget stepped closer and leaned in to study the strange dials and symbols.

  ‘And Hades gave you this himself?’ she looked up at Olivia who nodded in answer.

  ‘I don’t suppose you know how to use it do you?’

  Bridget shook her head contemplatively. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it before but it hums with power,’ her fingers hovered over it but did not touch the warm golden metal, almost as if she were afraid to.

  Olivia frowned as she looked down at it.

  ‘I haven’t a clue either.’

  ‘There are some spells we could try on it that may reveal its secrets.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Olivia mumbled thoughtfully as she stared at it, ‘maybe it doesn’t work here.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Theo asked.

  ‘Well Hades said, when I get to the Underworld I should use the compass, maybe it needs to be in the Underworld for it to work.’

  ‘What do you think Bridget?’ Theo asked.

  ‘It’s possible,’ she mused.

  ‘We’ll try the spells first’ Olivia decided. ‘If we still can’t get it to work, we’re going to have to take a chance and hope I can figure it out once we get to the Underworld.’

  ‘So I guess that leaves one more problem’ Theo frowned, ‘how do we stop Nathaniel and Isabel if we reach them in time?’

  ‘I’ll deal with my mother,’ Olivia replied darkly.

  ‘And Nathaniel? We don’t have any weapon that would work on him, I don’t even know if he can be killed.’

  ‘That’s Hades’ problem.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Hades told me to find them,’ she told Theo. ‘He said once I did he would deal with Nathaniel as long as they haven’t left the confines of the Underworld.’

  ‘What if they have?’ Sam asked.

  ‘We’ll just have to make sure that doesn’t happen,’ Olivia shook her head and blew out a frustrated breath. ‘God, all this over a book.’

  ‘I don’t suppose you know where the book is, do you Bridget?’ Theo asked.

  She shook her head. ‘No I don’t.’

  ‘But Hester definitely had the book? I mean are you sure it was passed to her?’

  ‘It wasn’t supposed to,’ her penetrating gaze fixed on Theo.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘As the oldest it was su
pposed to pass to me.’

  ‘Why didn’t it then?’ Olivia asked in confusion.

  ‘Because I made a choice, she turned her eyes on Olivia, her voice low. ‘I felt it… the darkness. I heard it’s call.’

  Olivia didn’t have to ask her what she meant, she understood exactly. She had felt it herself. When the whip of power had held her in its grasp she had felt the dark edge to it, gloried in it, welcomed it even. She’d ridden it right to the edge and stared into the abyss. It would have been so easy to embrace the darkness and the vast power it offered. But she hadn’t she reminded herself, her hand once more unconsciously gripping the slowly healing wound at her thigh.

  ‘You gave it to Hester, didn’t you?’ Olivia whispered.

  ‘I wanted it,’ Bridget spoke quietly as if she and Olivia were the only two people in the room and in a way they were because Olivia’s aunt Evie had been right. Bridget was the only one who could understand what it was like for Olivia because she too had felt the darkness, been tempted by it. She alone knew the seduction of its call. ‘I wanted it, not to keep it safe but to use its power. I couldn’t trust myself, so I gave it up and laid the burden upon my sister with the promise that she would never tell me its location.’

  Olivia nodded in understanding.

  ‘And you have no idea where she might’ve hidden it?’ Sam asked.

  Bridget shook her head.

  ‘It’s okay,’ Olivia replied, ‘it was always going to be a long shot. If we can get to my mother and Nathaniel before they use the Crossroad and stop them, we won’t need to find it. It can stay hidden for the rest of time for all I care.’

  ‘Unfortunately it’s not that simple Olivia,’ Bridget told her.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because even if you do stop them from gaining possession of the book, there will always be someone else looking for it. You have to find it and protect it.’

  ‘I can’t,’ she whispered as her eyes locked with Bridget’s, ‘you know I can’t.’

  The plain truth was she didn’t trust herself with the book any more than Bridget had. Her problem was she didn’t have a sister to step in and take it off her hands.

  ‘I’m sorry Olivia, more than you can possibly imagine, but you have to find the book. I think Hester hid it for you, she wanted you to find it.’