The Guardians Complete Series 1 Box Set: Contains Mercy, The Ferryman, Crossroads, Witchfinder, Infernum
Page 41
‘Why?’
‘Why do I want you to fill me in?’
‘Why do you want her back safe?’ Theo asked, his dark eyes blazing.
‘Because I was there,’ he sighed, ‘the night her father fled with her to Philadelphia. I was one of the officers on duty that night. I was the one who held her while she watched her father being taken away in cuffs, ranting about demons and devil’s traps.’
Theo and Jake exchanged a sharp look.
‘She was this tiny, beautiful, dark haired child, with sad eyes the color of single malt whiskey, her clothes covered in her mother’s blood and clutching onto her dog as if her life depended on it.’ Mac shook his head, ‘she got to me. I used to check in on her while she was in Philly, when she was moved by child services I lost her for a while, but I picked her up again when she turned eleven. By then she didn’t remember me, so I kept my distance, but I kept tabs on her to make sure she was okay until she turned eighteen. Even though she doesn’t know it, I look in on her every couple of years. If I’d known what was going on since she came back to Mercy you can bet your ass I would have done something about that lunatic Walcott long before now.’
Theo glanced at Jake, who nodded in silent agreement.
‘Thomas Walcott and Charles Connell used to be best friends back in the day,’ Jake told him. ‘They came up through school together with another guy by the name of James Talbot.’
‘James Talbot?’ Mac frowned. ‘Wasn’t he one of the victims from ‘94.’
‘Yes he was,’ Jake replied in surprise, ‘anyway the three of them were tight like brothers, well except for Walcott and Talbot. They had a relationship of a different nature.’
Mac stared at Jake.
‘They were lovers,’ Theo answered for him, seeing how hard it was to tell another's personal secret, despite everything Walcott had done.
‘I see,’ Mac murmured.
‘Olivia’s dad was the only other person that knew about them. After James Talbot was killed Walcott was convinced Connell was the murderer and that the killings only stopped because of his arrest.’ Jake continued. ‘Walcott knew Connell for years, he can read the man and if he’s going after the man he believed killed his lover…’
‘He’s using Olivia as bait,’ Mac agreed. ‘He will have figured out Connell is watching her, the question is where would he take her?’
‘We need to run all his addresses, any properties he owns or is connected to,’ Jake nodded.
‘Okay, let’s move. We don’t know how much time we’ve got.’
Olivia swam through layers of fogginess trying to regain consciousness. Her vision swam in and out of focus as she lifted her head with a tremendous effort. She could hear a clicking sound. Looking across the cramped room she could vaguely make out Walcott sitting on the bed waiting, impatiently cocking and uncocking the hammer on his gun.
He looked up in surprise as he caught Olivia looking at him through slightly unfocused eyes. He stood abruptly and headed back to the table behind her, where the small half-filled vial and syringe lay.
‘I would have thought you’d have been out for longer,’ he murmured, almost to himself, ‘I thought I’d given you enough. Maybe you need a bigger dose.’
Something about what he said triggered a thought. The drug was spread throughout her body via her blood. She already knew her body ran at a higher average temperature due to her magic, so what if that was why the dose was wearing off so quickly? If she could focus enough to use her magic, she could raise her body temperature higher, forcing her heart to work faster. If she could speed up her metabolism, burning the drug out of her system quicker, she might stand a chance.
‘No,’ she slurred.
He once again grabbed her hair and yanked her head to the side ready to plunge the needle into her neck. She turned and sunk her teeth viciously into his hand, drawing blood.
‘You bitch,’ he hissed, pulling back his fist and punching her in anger.
Olivia felt rather than heard the cracking sound her cheekbone made and could almost see her cheek swelling from the corner of her eye.
He grabbed her hair, yanking her back harder than before and stabbed the needle into her neck, causing her to cry out in pain.
‘Nothing,’ Jake smashed his hand against the desk in frustration as his search came up empty again.
‘What?’ Theo stopped pacing.
‘We’ve run every search we can think of, but he only has one address listed and we’ve already got a team over there waiting in case he shows. But he’s not stupid enough to turn up at his own house.’
‘Have you tried his Grandmama’s place?’ Ada Bradley wandered in and dropped a tray of coffees onto the desk. ‘I seem to recall her having a cabin out on the lake somewhere.’
Jake looked up at the elderly desk clerk and sighed.
‘We’ve already checked, there’s nothing listed under Walcott.’
‘This was before she married the Chief’s Granddaddy. She was a Creole, her name was Bachelier back then.’
Jake tapped a few more keys and still came up blank.
‘There’s nothing under Clare Bachelier,’ he shook his head.
‘Well no there wouldn’t be, her name was Clea Bachelier. Chief’s granddaddy made her change it when they got married. He thought Clare was more appropriate.’
Jake tapped a few more keys and fist pumped the air.
‘Mrs Bradley I could kiss you,’ he jumped up and grabbed his jacket. ‘The Bachelier place is on the North-West bank of the Lake, I’ve got the address.’
‘Let’s go then,’ Mac nodded and both he and Theo followed Jake from the room.
Olivia tried to raise her head, but it just bobbed on her neck as her eyes rolled back. She fought to stay awake but he must have given her a pretty big dose of whatever was in that vial. She could feel herself slipping and she knew she didn’t have long.
The sudden smell of the forest filled her nostrils and she breathed deeply. It was a sharp clean smell, like the scent of the trees after a heavy rain. For a brief second, the fog in her mind lifted and she felt someone lean in close and whisper in her ear.
‘You know what you have to do.’
Just as quickly as it had come, the feeling and the voice was gone. The heaviness returned and her heart pumped sluggishly. She did know what she needed to do, she had to burn the drug out of her blood. Even now she could feel it pumping through her veins like poison.
Allowing her eyes to close, she reached down to where her magic pulsed. It beat within her breast like a tiny second heart, pulsing with heat and light. She reached for it, but it seemed to be surrounded by a dark wraith-like smog.
She reached for it again, but the darkness enveloped the bright strands of gold and red. Anger began to burn inside her and the more she fed her fury, the brighter her fire pulsed. She focused on the pain, the unfairness, on everything that had happened to her since she’d come back to Mercy and the ball of light grew. She grasped onto it with everything she had and the ball burst into bright flames. Strands of yellow, gold and red snaked through her veins like tentacles, burning the blackness as it went.
Olivia could feel her heart pounding in her chest, in her throat, in her ears. Her whole body felt like it was on fire as sweat poured from her, drenching her hair and making her clothes cling to her damp skin. Her mind cleared and her eyes focused sharply on Walcott. He had his back to her and was once again staring out of the window.
The door to the cabin suddenly burst open. Walcott spun around, raising his weapon and training it on the open doorway as he inched closer to Olivia. Charles Connell strode through the door with all the concern of a man out for a Sunday stroll.
‘Thomas,’ he spoke calmly, ‘you do like to do things the hard way, don’t you?’
His eyes dropped to his daughter, who was taped to a chair, her swollen face bleeding and dripping onto a police issue jacket several sizes too big for her.
‘I’m not scared of you Charlie,’ he growled, aiming his gun at him and pulling the Mojo bag from under his shirt and clenching it in his fist. ‘You can’t use your magic on me this time.’
‘I’ve no need to waste my magic on you, I could kill you with my bare hands if I wanted to, besides…’ his smile was cold. ‘I didn’t come alone.’
Walcott suddenly felt the barrel of a gun pressed firmly to the back of his head. His eyes widened as he glanced across to the old shabby mirror on the opposite wall. It was cracked in one corner and it needed re-silvering, but he could still make out the tall, slim, white haired man behind him. Where the hell had he come from? There was only one door and he was facing it.
‘Put the gun down Tommy,’ Charles told him firmly.
‘I could still kill you; I really don’t care if I die.’
‘I believe you, but believe me when I tell you Davis will have a bullet lodged in your brain before you can even pull the trigger and I will walk out of here with my daughter,’ his voice was low and menacing. ‘I win…you lose.’
‘You son of a bitch,’ he growled, as he lowered his weapon and it clattered harmlessly to the floor.
‘So I’ve been told.’
He glanced over Walcott’s shoulder with the barest nod of his head and Davis smashed the butt of the gun down, knocking Walcott out cold.
Charles moved closer to Olivia and crouched in front of her. Slowly and carefully he moved a lock of damp matted hair from her eyes, taking in the injuries to her face.
Olivia watched him silently, her eyes clouding with pain and confusion as she looked into the eyes of a man she hadn’t spoken to in over twenty years.
‘Daddy?’ her voice was a croaky whisper.
‘Hello Jelly Bean,’ he stroked the line of her nose the way he used to when she was a child and her heart clenched painfully.
Her eyes blurred with tears.
‘Don’t,’ she shook her head and pulled away from his touch as if it burned. ‘Why? Tell me why?’
He pulled back and the glimpse of her father was gone and a much colder version stood in his place.
‘Why what?’ his head tilted slightly. ‘Why did your mother have to die? Or why did all those men have to die?’
Her mouth fell open at the callous disregard with which he spoke of them all.
‘Did you feel anything?’ she whispered, ‘when you killed them?’
His eye flickered.
‘You were too young to understand at the time, but you will understand soon.’
‘Understand what? That you only kept me alive because you needed my blood to unlock the devil’s trap?’
That got a reaction from him and he took a step back.
‘Charles,’ Davis turned from the window, ‘we’ve got company.’
He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
‘You will understand and I’m sorry, but there is no other way,’ he whispered. ‘Some things you have to see for yourself.’
She pulled back and stared into his eyes.
‘Charles,’ Davis called again more urgently.
Suddenly Olivia felt a sharp scratch at her neck and once again everything went dark.
‘You didn’t have to do that,’ Charles turned to look at Davis as he placed the syringe down on the table.
‘They are tracking Walcott, we can’t have her telling them we were here. By the time she wakes up we’ll be long gone.’
Charles looked back down at Olivia.
‘Charles,’ Davis grabbed his arm, ‘we’ve come too far too stop now. We’re so close, we have to see this through.’
Charles nodded as he turned to scoop Walcott’s gun off the floor. Flipping open the barrel, he dropped the bullets into his palm along with the round in the chamber and shoved them into his pocket, before dropping the gun to the floor.
‘Ready?’ Davis asked.
Charles nodded as Davis placed his hand on his shoulder and once again Charles felt that curious sensation of weightlessness. With one final look at each other they walked straight through the back wall of the cabin, as if it wasn’t even there, and disappeared into the woods.
Thomas Walcott opened his eyes groggily and pushed himself to his knees shaking his head. The sound of sirens blared close by. He hauled himself to his feet and grabbed the gun he’d dropped. He saw Olivia still strapped to the chair, unconscious, but as he spun around he realized he was alone. Charles was gone, he’d slipped through his fingers again. He roared in anger and aiming at Olivia he pulled the trigger several times.
Nothing happened. Throwing the gun in fury, he heard it smash through a pane of glass. The sound of the sirens was getting louder, and knowing he didn’t have time to do anything about the unconscious woman he yanked open the door and disappeared into the woods.
25.
Theo looked down at Olivia, lying so still, surrounded by beeping monitors. He smoothed her hair back from her bruised face, noting the welt at her forehead, her swollen cheek and her split lip. The skin of her jaw was already turning a dark shade of purple and looked suspiciously like fingerprints.
His fist clenched involuntarily with helpless rage. Her throat was covered with a white sterile dressing, although patches of blood had already begun to seep through and he could see bruising spreading out from underneath the surgical tape holding the dressing in place. He took her hand gently, unable to ignore the bruising banding her wrists.
‘Has he moved yet?’ Erica whispered as she walked into the hospital room holding a bouquet of flowers.
‘No,’ Jake replied as he stood watching them with folded arms and an inscrutable expression.
‘The Mayor sent these,’ she set them down on a nearby table. ‘She said she’d be by to see Olivia once she’s awake.’
He stared at her silently.
‘This is not her fault Jake.’
‘I didn’t say it was,’ he replied tightly.
‘You didn’t need to,’ she frowned. ‘I can see it written all over your face.’
‘I don’t need to say it then, do I?’ his gaze turned back to Olivia and Theo.
‘How’s Olivia anyway?’ she sighed.
‘Louisa says she’s stable. We won’t know what he drugged her with until her bloods come back. Her wounds are mostly superficial and should heal quickly. Her vitals are good, so there’s nothing to do but monitor her and wait for her to wake up.’
‘How’s she doing?’ Mac strode into the room.
‘Still asleep,’ Jake replied. ‘Have you found Walcott yet?’
Mac shook his head.
‘We’re searching the woods, and keeping an eye on his house and credit cards. He has to surface sooner or later.’
‘You’d better hope you find him before I do,’ Theo turned to look at him calmly, ‘because if I get my hands on him, I’m going to kill him.’
‘Is he serious?’ Mac turned back to Jake.
Jake shrugged.
‘I might just help him,’ he replied.
‘Christ,’ Mac scrubbed his hand over his face. ‘What a mess.’
‘Will you lot shut up and go away, some of us are trying to sleep,’ Olivia croaked.
‘Olivia,’ Theo turned swiftly back toward her.
‘I’ll go get Louisa,’ Erica disappeared from the room.
‘Olivia,’ Theo repeated softly, ‘look at me,’
She opened her eyes slowly, her gaze slightly glazed as she tried to focus on his face.
‘Hey,’ she whispered reaching out and tracing the faint indentation at his chin, ‘you didn’t answer your phone.’
Frowning in confusion he cast his mind back to earlier. Erica had said that, just before Olivia was taken she had left her alone and gone outside because she was trying to call him and Jake.
‘Jake lost his signal and I forgot to charge mine,’ he caught her hand as it absently traced the stubble at his jaw, and pressed her palm to his cheek. ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me.’
‘It’s not your fault,’ she murmured as the memories of her last few moments of consciousness began to surface. ‘Theo.’
‘Yes.’
‘I saw my dad,’ she whispered.
‘Your father was at the cabin?’ Mac interrupted, stepping closer to the bed.
Olivia’s eyes turned on him noting his face and uniform and shut down, her gaze becoming instantly guarded.
‘No more questions,’ Louisa breezed easily into the room, ‘until I’ve checked my patient. I’m sorry Captain Macallister, but you’ll have to wait.’
Olivia’s gaze shifted to her friend as she moved to the side of the bed and checked the ribbon of paper attached to the monitor.
‘Hey sweetheart,’ she smiled as she leaned over the bed, ‘how are you feeling?’
‘Like crap,’ she croaked, her hand moving to her neck and finding a dressing covering most of her throat.
‘Your throat’s pretty bruised,’ Louisa’s expression hardened. ‘That butcher wasn’t too gentle with the syringe.’
‘Sit up,’ Olivia whispered struggling to rise.
‘Hold on,’ she raised the bed and both she and Theo grasped her gently under the arms helping her up, as Erica passed them a couple of plump pillows, which she tucked behind her gently.
‘Thirsty.’
Theo poured her a cup of water from a nearby pitcher and held the straw to her lips so she could take a sip.
‘Thank you,’ she replied tiredly, slumping back against the pillows.
Louisa took a small torch from her breast pocket and checked her pupils.
‘Well, it looks like you’re going to be fine,’ Louisa told her. ‘Most of your injuries are pretty minor but there’s a lot of bruising. We were a bit concerned about that knock to the head, but we ran a CT while you were out and it turns out you do have a brain, so it’s all good.’
Olivia managed a small smile.