The Guardians Complete Series 1 Box Set: Contains Mercy, The Ferryman, Crossroads, Witchfinder, Infernum

by Wendy Saunders

  ‘You’re still mad at me.’

  ‘Is that a question or a statement?’ he replied coolly.

  ‘Layton’ she sighed, ‘I’m sorry I never told you but it’s really not that big a deal.’

  ‘Excuse me?’ his expression darkened, ‘not that big a deal? You lied to me about who you are.’

  ‘I didn’t, not really’ she replied. ‘Look after I was taken to the hospital and treated I was adopted by the Burnetts. They gave me their name legally and they shortened my name to Tammy and it just kind of stuck. I never lied to you about who I was, I’m still me. I just didn’t tell you where and when I was born.’

  ‘A lie by omission is still a lie.’

  ‘For God’s sake Layton stop being so obtuse.’

  ‘Obtuse?’ he stood abruptly, facing her over his desk. ‘You should have told me.’

  ‘Really?’ she asked incredulously, ‘tell you what? That I was born in Salem in 1676 and magically pulled through time? Tell me Layton, exactly how am I supposed to start a conversation like that? You wouldn’t have believed a damn word out of my mouth. You’d have thought I was crazy and with good reason. Admit it, if I had told you back then before all of this happened, before the things you’ve seen since you came back to Mercy, there is no way you could’ve believed me.’

  ‘Maybe not the first time around but I have been back in Mercy for months’ he snapped, ‘months Tammy and at any point you could’ve come to me and told me the truth but you didn’t.’

  ‘I couldn’t.’

  ‘You mean wouldn’t,’ he replied bitterly. ‘You’re not the woman I thought you were. I don’t know you at all.’

  ‘That’s not fair,’ she whispered, ‘you were the only one who did know the real me.’

  ‘How can I believe that now?’

  She could feel the tears burning the back of her eyes and the hot hard knot forming in her throat. Not wanting to let him see how much his words had stung she turned and headed towards the door. But she paused with her hand on the handle; she couldn’t leave him like this, after everything. She’d hurt him, she knew it and he deserved as much of an answer as she was able to give him.

  ‘I never had the chance to know my mother,’ she began so softly he almost missed it.

  Mac watched her carefully, ignoring the heaviness in his chest as she spoke.

  ‘My father was an abusive alcoholic, my eldest brother became a cold blooded killer and my sister in law was violent and unstable because she was probably suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Theo was all I had. He pretty much raised me from the moment I was born; it was me and him against the world. You can’t begin to imagine how painful it was being separated from him and not only that but to be placed in a world I didn’t understand, with people I didn’t know and I couldn’t tell anyone, not another living soul, where I came from. I’ve waited forty years to see my brother again. Do you think I didn’t want to tell the truth? The minute he landed up in Mercy do you think I wasn’t desperate to go to him and tell him who I was? Of all the time I have spent with Olivia do you not wonder why I was so careful to never be in the same room as Theo? To make sure our paths didn’t cross? Because I couldn’t take the risk of him recognizing me or figuring out who I was before now. Things are about to get bad Layton, really bad. Nathaniel is even more dangerous now and Isabel West is not only losing her grip on her sanity but on her control over him. I never wanted you to get caught up in the middle of all of this. It’s my fault, I should never have asked you to come back to Mercy.’ She shook her head, her voice low and filled with pain. ‘I am truly sorry for the hurt I have caused you Layton.’

  Her eyes were burning but she couldn’t bring herself to look at him. She turned towards the door and fumbled with the handle, trying to swallow past the misery lodged in her throat. She was so focused on trying to get out of the room she didn’t notice him round the desk and head towards her in two quick strides. All she knew was she was suddenly caged against the door by his arms. She felt the heat and hardness of his body pressed against her back and his breath whisper across her cheekbone. As he bent low his voice washed over her, familiar and gravelly; she’d always loved the sound of his voice.

  ‘Tell me just one thing.’

  She turned and looked up into his piercing blue eyes.

  ‘Is this the reason you wouldn’t marry me?’

  If her silence hadn’t given him the answer he needed, he would have read it in the guilt swimming in her glassy eyes.

  ‘Damn it Tammy,’ he growled low.

  Before she could open her mouth to respond, his crashed down on her. A gasp escaped as he took her under, his fingers tangled in her sleek bob length hair, holding her close as his mouth tasted her like he was a man starving. She couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. It all crashed in on her with painful acuity, the familiarity, the heat, all those feeling of longing, of need, and she embraced them all and gave like she had never given before. For the first time ever there were no barriers between them, no secrets; it was just the two of them. Her fingers grazed his jaw and slid up to his cheeks tracing the indentations of what had been cute dimples in his youth but had now deepened into sexy creases. His stubble scraped at her sensitive skin but she didn’t care. His hard body pressed her soft curves as he held her trapped against the door. When the insistent need for oxygen finally drove them apart they stood breathing heavily, his forehead pressed to hers, his hands still tangled in her hair and her fingers still gently cupping his ridiculously handsome face.

  ‘Tammy,’ he breathed against her mouth, ‘I don’t need you to protect me, I just need you. I always have.’

  ‘Don’t,’ the word came out as a choked sob, ‘I can’t lose you Layton, not like this. I won’t have your blood on my hands.’

  Something about the way she said it set alarm bells going off in his head. He grasped her chin gently and brought her face up so she had no choice but to look into his eyes.

  ‘There’s something else,’ he frowned, ‘something you’re not telling me.’

  ‘Layton please,’ she tried to shake her head but he held her firmly with gently hands.

  ‘Tell me Tammy, I know the truth about who you are now. There will be no more secrets between us.’

  ‘I can’t.’

  ‘Are you in danger?’

  She stared at him silently.

  ‘Tammy,’ he warned.

  ‘When Nathaniel finds out who I am’ she whispered, ‘he will come after me, for no other reason than to hurt Theo.’

  ‘I’m not going to let that happen,’ he stroked her jaw softly.

  ‘This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you. Nathaniel will kill whoever stands between me and him and then he will kill me in the worst way possible. I told you before Layton I won’t have your blood on my hands.’

  ‘You think I’m just going to stand by and watch you get hurt?’ he asked angrily.

  ‘Do you think I’m going to use you as a human shield?’ she fired back.

  ‘It’s not your choice Tammy.’

  ‘Yes it is,’ she pulled his hands from her face and pushed him away. She couldn’t think when he was crowding her space, she could only feel and it was that stupidity which had made her confess everything to him in the first place. ‘Stay away from me Layton, I mean it.’

  She turned and yanked the door open and disappeared.

  He let her go, he knew she wouldn’t run far and they both needed the space to process all that had happened. His heart was still thundering in his chest and he could still taste her on his lips. He pressed his forehead against the cool wood of the door and took a deep breath. So this was how she wanted to play it was it? Pushing him away so he wouldn’t get hurt? Well fuck that, this time there was no way he was giving her up without a fight. He was going to damn well protect the woman he loved even if it meant going up against a demon.

  Chapter 4.

  Jonathan Bailey rose slowly from his kne
eling position on the cold hard floor. He leaned heavily on the shelving he had just been restocking as he straightened his aching back, wincing as he felt his knees click. He gazed through the window at the rapidly melting snow and breathed a sigh of relief; his bones were definitely looking forward to the warmer weather. Glancing around the quiet store his eyes flicked to the clock which hung above the cash register. Good, he’d be closing up soon. There was no use denying it, especially in quiet contemplative moments like this, but he was getting too old to manage the store by himself. He knew his wife Eunie loved the store and helped immensely. Despite her rather frightening reputation for being a busy body and the town gossip she had a good heart, one she didn’t let the rest of the town see. She would perch on her throne behind the cash register and freely dispense her mind and opinion to the good people of Mercy, often with brutal practicality and razor sharp honesty. It wasn’t always appreciated or even warranted but the residents had come to accept her the way she was. He was the only person who knew the real Eustacia Bailey.

  They’d never been blessed with children. They’d never spoken of it, even after the first ten years of their marriage and their joint failure to produce a child. She’d begun to change after that. As more of their friends and acquaintances subsequently married and produced large families with ease, the harder it had been on Eunie. Sure he’d wanted kids, he’d dreamed of passing the store on to his son or daughter just as the store had been passed to him by his father and grandfather before him. But he’d accepted along the way that some things were just not meant to be. It always sat there between them, the unspoken heartbreak and regret but as the years rolled by, the sharper her tongue became and the harder it was to dredge up the past. They had made a comfortable life for themselves, there had been good times and laughter but he wondered if by keeping them tied to the store, to the legacy left by his family, he had held them back. Perhaps when it became clear to them there would be no children they should have created a new dream together.

  He looked around at the general store which had been in his family for three generations, realizing how much he loved it. It held so many memories of his own family, of his childhood and his parents and of his life with Eustacia but perhaps…perhaps it was time to let it go. Lately he had been thinking more and more about selling the store and retiring. He could take Eunie on one of those fancy cruises, somewhere warm and exotic where his bones wouldn’t creak and complain like an un-oiled hinge. He’d never had the chance to take her on a honeymoon as his father had suffered a stroke just before their wedding and he’d had to take over the store. Yet she’d never complained, well he thought with a silent chuckle, she’d never complained about him, though she damn well complained about nearly everything else.

  A small smile played on his lips as he scooped the empty cardboard cartons off the floor beside the newly stocked shelves, his mind still caught up in a lifetime of memories. Eustacia Bailey may have henpecked him to within an inch of his life, liberally and often with great gusto but the truth was she had been the sun and the moon to him for the last fifty years.

  ‘Jonathan!’ her familiar tone snapped, ‘what are you doing standing around with that silly grin on your face, it’s nearly five past and you’ve not locked the doors yet.’

  ‘Yes dear,’ he smiled softly at her with infinite patience, ‘I was just about to.’

  ‘Well get on with it,’ she stood with one hand fisted on her hip and the other tucking the cash drawer under her arm. ‘I’d like to get home some time tonight.’

  He shuffled over to her, dropping the empty boxes by her feet. He leaned towards her as she watched him with wary eyes and dropped a sweet kiss on her cheek.

  ‘I love you Eunie,’ he smiled, ‘I don’t think I’ve said that to you often enough.’

  ‘Have you been drinking?’ her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

  ‘No,’ he replied in amusement.

  ‘Then what are you after, trying to soften me up?’

  ‘Nothing,’ he chuckled.

  ‘Well,’ her lips pursed speculatively, ‘you’d better get on with it then.’

  He watched her as she turned abruptly and headed towards the back where the office was located. Suddenly she stopped, hesitated and turned back towards him slowly.

  ‘I love you too,’ she added, a faint blush staining her cheeks under layers of pressed powder.

  He smiled as she disappeared into the back room; maybe it was time to start thinking about selling up after all. The soft tinkle of the bell shook him from his thoughts and still smiling he turned towards the door.

  ‘I’m sorry we’re closing…’

  His voice trailed off and the smile fell from his face as he watched the tall figure of a man enter. He was uncommonly tall, must’ve been nearly seven feet in height. He was immaculately dressed in a crisp white shirt and black waistcoat and trousers. His heavy black overcoat was so long it hung to his lower calves, and his silver hair was almost completely concealed by a large wide-brimmed black hat. His skin was papery and heavily lined with age, his cheeks hollow and his mouth a thin tight line but it was his eyes which caused Jonathan Bailey’s own to widen in shock. The stranger’s eyes were completely black, with no whites at all. But it wasn’t just that they were black, Jonathan found himself staring, inexplicably drawn into those shiny orbs, unable to move or even gasp in fear. The blackness seemed to go on endlessly, vast and all encompassing, a soulless void of nothingness.

  He couldn’t move. Caught like an insect in a web, his mouth fell open and yet no sound emerged. His eyes widened in fear but he could not close them to shut out the vast inevitable pit he was being sucked down into. He vaguely registered the stranger’s palm pressing against his chest, the abnormally long elegant fingers sinking into his skin as if he were no more than a shadow. There was no blood, no wound but he suddenly felt a shocking tear, as if something precious had been ripped from him. The color drained from his eyes taking them from a merry twinkling brown to the pale colorless cream of a serpent. His lips, still open in a silent scream of stunned agony, held a faint blue stain as his skin turned grey. Then he felt nothing but a shocking emptiness and crushing cold, his body falling backwards in slow motion. He could see it somehow, as if he were suddenly watching from a different vantage point and when it hit the ground he felt nothing.

  The stranger withdrew his clenched fist from the discarded body, his long tapered fingers wrapped around a small ball of pure white light which pulsed brightly in his palm. His other hand dipped into the folds of his heavy overcoat and withdrew a small clear glass bottle. He tipped the light into the bottle and pressed a stopper into the neck as if to prevent the strange ball of light from escaping. He shook the bottle a couple of times, seemingly satisfied when it shone even brighter. Tucking the bottle into his breast pocket he turned back to the door, disappearing into the street in a tiny tinkle of bells.

  Olivia crossed Main St lost in thought. She settled the weight of her backpack more comfortably on her back but paused suddenly and frowned. For a second she could’ve sworn she’d seen a large black shadow emerge from the doorway of the Bailey’s convenience store. A sudden blast of icy air crashed against her and she took an involuntary step back, drawing in a shaky breath. Curious, she headed towards the Bailey’s store and stepped over the threshold. She’d been in that store so many times and this was an exact replica, right down to the chipped wooden door frame and the faded open sign, but it felt different this time. The store was one of the first places she’d been to when she arrived in the Otherworld and although it was abandoned it had still retained the warmth and smell of home. Not this time, the air was freezing, she could almost feel the hairs rising on the back of her neck and a strange smell lingered on the air. If she had to guess she would have sworn it was the pungent scent of lilies.

  It just felt all wrong; she couldn’t describe the what or how, but she could feel it. Stepping further into the store a wave of nausea washed over her. F
orcing herself forward she searched the store thoroughly but she couldn’t find anything. Opening the door at the back of the store she stepped into a small windowless room which held a small desk and chair, an ancient computer and a tall metal filing cabinet. Once again she found nothing amiss, just the inexplicable sense of wrongness. She turned back to the door but paused, tilting her head to listen carefully. In the little room, she could hear several low pitched sounds. She had to concentrate, straining to separate them. One sounded like the frantic clatter of nails on a computer keyboard, another made her think of the clink of coins being counted and finally she thought she could hear the low murmur of a familiar voice. In fact, it sounded like Mrs Bailey.

  Just when Olivia thought it couldn’t get any stranger she saw a flicker at the edge of her vision and when she turned, just for a split second, she saw Mrs Bailey kneeling down to place a stack of money into the small safe she hadn’t realized was tucked underneath the desk. But as quickly as she had appeared she was gone again. Olivia shook her head; she must be losing her mind. She was probably hallucinating, after all she technically hadn’t slept since the night before they closed the gateway and even then with the revelation of Theo’s wife she hadn’t slept particularly well that night either. With the sudden thought of Theo, the pressure in her chest once again flared. Forcing down a wave of guilt and pain and loneliness all wrapped up in a helpless messy bow of love, she turned and stepped from the tight unpleasant confines of the room.

  Stepping back out into the store she headed towards the door. She probably needed to find somewhere comfortable and safe to get her head down for a few hours and sleep.

  ‘Jonathan!’ the scream of panic ripped through the air unmistakably loud and clear.

  She spun around and saw Mrs Bailey emerge from the office her wide shocked eyes focused on something behind Olivia. Before she could react Mrs Bailey rushed forward and passed straight through her and disappeared once again. Olivia sucked in a deep shaky breath and shivered, it felt as if she had just been doused with a bucket of ice cold water. Her gaze once again scanned the room but Mrs Bailey was nowhere to be seen. Shaking her head lightly, a tired almost hysterical laugh caught in her throat, Olivia once again headed for the door, determined to get out of the store which now felt entirely too small and confining. It was almost as if Mrs Bailey had been a ghost, appearing and disappearing like that. What with the whispering voices and the strange feelings, if she’d been back in the real world Olivia thought as she stepped back out into the street, it would have felt like a haunting. Except she realized with a jolt, they weren’t the ghosts, she was.