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

by Wendy Saunders

  She’d tried to focus on her work, trying to distract herself with research. She’d even shut herself in the kitchen to cook thinking if she made something complicated it would give her mind a reprieve. Instead all she had was a congealed mess welded to the inside of her pans and a slightly nauseating odor hanging in the air, which smelled alarmingly like burned rubber. In the end she’d given in; she wasn’t going to be able to ignore the problem and hope it went away. She had no choice but to face it head on.

  She didn’t want to; she didn’t want to take out what her mother had told her and examine it too closely. She hadn’t even wanted to believe it. But it gnawed at her, sly and relentless, until she had no choice. She’d asked Theo to retrieve the VCR and tapes she knew were in the attic. She’d stumbled over them months ago when she was up there looking for the Maledictionem chest.

  She’d always intended to go back and get them, but she kept getting sidetracked. More than that she admitted to herself, a part of her had held back, had not wanted to know what was on the tapes. After all what possible good could it do, reliving her childhood through the eyes of a camera lens? Not when she knew how much of it had been a lie, or rather she thought she’d known how much of it was a lie. She had been wrong, it was so much worse than she could’ve imagined.

  She hadn’t wanted to believe her mother back in Salem when she’d alluded to the fact that her beloved grandmother had not been what she seemed. Olivia had been so sure she’d known her better than any of the lies her mother had told her, so sure that her mother was just trying to manipulate her and her feelings. She’d brushed it aside once she returned to Mercy, busying herself with her wedding and her pregnancy. Then her mother had come to her home and told her things…too many things. It had been too much to process, too much to believe.

  She’d screamed and called her a liar, convinced it was still some sort of manipulation to gain her trust, so that her mother could get her hands on the book she’d been so obsessed with.

  She knew the truth now; she’d seen it with her own eyes. She’d seen it on every single tape documenting her grandmother’s obsession with her. Her mother hadn’t been lying. She’d seen the way her mother had treated her when unaware the camera had been rolling. She’d watched the way her grandmother, at every single opportunity, had tried to lure her away from her mother. She’d seen the hurt in her mother’s face every time she’d shunned her and skipped happily into her grandmother’s arms, completely unaware of how she was being manipulated.

  Her mother was right, her grandmother had been training her like a puppy, until she was so reliant on her she would bypass her own mother every single time and head straight for her.

  Her chest felt like it was being crushed with the weight of it. Although she’d been too young to understand, completely unaware of how her actions were hurting her mother, she knew she had been partially responsible for her mother’s bitterness. All that pain and resentment and betrayal had driven her to become a killer, to become a monster… and Olivia had played her part.

  She closed her eyes against a fresh onslaught of pain. Not only had she come to terms with what she’d done to her mother but she’d had to accept a very painful truth. Her grandmother, who she’d loved more than anything, was not the woman she’d thought she was. She was just as cold and manipulative as her mother and just as much a murderer. It seemed that everywhere she turned she was surrounded by lies and manipulation and death. She’d hurt for her mother, when she finally accepted the truth. She hadn’t wanted to, but she had.

  Five men. That was what she had to keep reminding herself. Her mother may not have killed those men back in 1994 but she’d still killed Adam Miller, Brody Walker, Lucas Campbell, Daryl Ward and Thomas Walcott. Because of her mother, Adam, the sweet young bartender, had never even known his girlfriend was pregnant, let alone got to meet his gorgeous little boy Miller, the boy Jackson was now raising because his biological father was dead and his mother had skipped town.

  As if that weren’t bad enough, her mother had decided now was the time to tell her what she’d given up at the crossroad. Such a little thing she’d said, she hadn’t thought it was important. Even though the request had given her a little jolt to start with, she hadn’t thought she would miss it at all. She’d had no idea it would change her in such a profound way.

  She had changed, and in more ways than just gaining the magic she’d lacked her entire life. She was no longer the mother Olivia remembered from her early childhood; no longer the mother she’d grieved for all through her teens and early adulthood. She wasn’t even the same woman who’d shot her nearly a year ago.

  It was so confusing. A small part of her still yearned towards her mother, no matter what she’d done, but the fact remained she was a murderer and she could not be trusted.

  Olivia glanced back across the lake, glistening in the early evening light. The sun was beginning to dip toward the horizon, painting the sky with a riot of purple and pink slashes. Her eyes narrowed, locking onto the center of the lake, where so many months before a giant gateway had speared up out of the icy water. There was a disturbance in the air, a kind of shimmering displacement, like a mirage in the middle of a scorching hot desert. The lower the sun got over the lake the clearer the shimmering became.

  The same harsh whispering she’d been hearing for weeks returned forcefully, so loud she almost placed her hands over her ears like a child. It pulled at her, tugged, seduced, and cajoled her. She wanted to follow the voice; she wanted to hear it more clearly. Her head was pounding, the headache sudden and painful and she felt exhausted, right down to her bones. All the stress, the worry, the emotional turmoil just came crashing in on her like a tidal wave and all she wanted to do was crawl into her bed and sleep.

  Unfolding her legs, stiff now from being curled under her for so long, she pushed herself up shakily, her skin suddenly prickling as the blood flow rushed back into her feet. Pushing herself up more fully, she tried to ignore the throbbing in her head as she pulled her blanket around her more tightly. She bypassed Theo’s studio, too exhausted and not wanting to disturb him while he was working, and headed straight for the stairs. She knew sooner or later he’d go looking for her but all she wanted to do was lie down.

  She slowly climbed the steps with Beau at her heels following behind her quietly and her dragonflies dancing around her head. She headed for her room, not even bothering to strip off her clothes as she climbed between the sheets still wrapped in her blanket. She closed her eyes, letting out a deep breath. The last thing she was aware of was Beau scrambling up onto the bed with her and curling himself protectively over her cocooned body.

  Beau watched as her breathing evened out and one by one her dragonflies disappeared. Letting out a breath of his own he settled his face on his paws, watching her with dark liquid eyes as she fell into a deep troubled sleep.

  It took Olivia a moment to realize she was no longer in bed. Her mind curiously foggy, she looked down at her bare feet as she walked across the sparse cold grass toward the lake, vaguely aware she was still wearing the same clothes she had fallen asleep in. She found herself wondering idly how long it had been since she’d crawled into bed. She looked up at the vast night sky above her, a dark heavy mass of endless black with swirling gray shadows. The clouds parted and the moon shone through, huge and round like a disc, reflecting its light upon the ripples of water below.

  The air was cold and her feet and hands were numb, but she barely noticed. She could hear a sibilant hiss upon the air. At first she thought it was just the wind as it blew in across the lake overlaying the sound of softly lapping water, but slowly it grew louder. It was not quite the same as the whispering she’d been hearing for weeks now. That had been a lone voice, ancient and filled with secrets. No, this whispering was strangely choral, like several voices, all holding conversations at once.

  She glanced up at the center of the lake; the shimmering, undulating disturbance in the air she’d witnesse
d earlier from her window was gone. It was now replaced with a colossal gateway which speared up out of the lake, water cascading down its foreboding face in giant tears. It was unlike anything she’d ever witnessed. There was only one other time she’d seen anything that came close and that was when she, Theo and Sam had been standing in Erebus, the first level of the Underworld, staring at the gigantic stone gateway which was the entrance to the deepest darkest levels of the Underworld.

  This one was much the same. It towered up into the air, probably at least as tall as the Empire State Building, but whereas the stone gateway she’d seen in Erebus had ‘HADES’ etched deeply into the crest of the arch, this one did not. It had one word… ‘HELL’.

  Olivia sucked in a breath, shaking her head to try and clear her mind. It was a Hell gate; she actually had a Hell gate in the middle of her lake. She also knew for a fact on the opposite shore, beside Clea Bachelier’s cabin was a smaller Spirit gate. It made her wonder how many other gates were located in Mercy. She had always known her town was different; there was an undercurrent of magic that permeated the very soil beneath them. She’d known, even as a child, that it was a place of power and that was why so many magically descended or gifted people were drawn toward it. She’d just had no idea that it was because they had an actual live Hell mouth in their midst. She blinked and looked around, idly wondering if this was some strange dream and she’d accidentally wandered into Sunnydale.

  ‘It’s not a dream,’ a soft voice spoke so closely beside her she jolted in surprise. ‘The Hell gate has always been there, it is only now that you are able to see it.’

  Olivia turned towards the voice, her eyes narrowing at the stranger standing next to her. He wore a dark nondescript suit, his skin was pale but his eyes were dark. His hair, despite his youthful face, was white and sat straight and long around his shoulders like a lion’s mane.

  ‘Who are you?’ she asked in confusion. Although she didn’t recognize him, there was something familiar about his voice. She was sure she’d heard it somewhere before, she just couldn’t quite place it.

  ‘I was like you once,’ he smiled dimly, his eyes dark and lost in memories as he gazed out across the lake to the imposing giant gateway. ‘I had a name, but it was so very long ago. It no longer has any meaning. I am nothing, merely an echo of what once was; an imprint of a race long since gone. We are everywhere and nowhere.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ she frowned, ‘what are you?’

  ‘I am one of many,’ he turned back to her. ‘It would serve no good to resurrect our name. We were the first, but our time in this world has long since passed. It is humanity’s turn now.’

  ‘What happened to your race?’ she asked curiously. ‘If you were the very first race why haven’t we found traces of you before?’

  ‘We destroyed ourselves,’ he intoned emotionlessly, ‘delved too recklessly into the deep magics, the forbidden magics. We were too greedy, too hungry for their secrets. In the end we lost ourselves to the shadows. The books and a few objects of power are all that is left of us. You wear such an object yourself.’

  She felt the compass throb against her naked skin beneath her shirt.

  ‘The Time’dhal?’ she touched it involuntarily, her hand going to her chest as the realization came to her. ‘It was you…you were the one who came to me, whispering in my ear back in Salem. You were the one who told me how to use it to open the portal.’

  ‘I told you nothing,’ he replied matter of factly. ‘The knowledge was inside you all along. Somehow you are able to channel the echo of our consciousness, our knowledge, and our secrets. That is why you can understand the ancient languages; they were all derived from our language…the first language.’

  ‘Your race created the books?’ she asked slowly.

  ‘Yes we did,’ he muttered, his gaze once again fixed on the gateway as they both looked out across the water, ‘for our sins.’

  ‘Why?’ she shook her head. ‘Did you not think about what would happen if those books fell into the wrong hands?’

  ‘We were…afraid,’ he finally admitted.

  ‘Of what?’

  ‘The magic,’ he breathed slowly in remembrance, ‘it was too dark, too vast. We thought we could control it but we were wrong. We divided the magic and locked it inside the books; we were trying to save ourselves but it was too late, the damage was done. From the first moment we unleashed it our race was doomed to extinction.’

  ‘What happens if Nathaniel gets his hands on the book?’ she asked bleakly. ‘What happens if he opens it?’

  ‘The end of all things,’ he whispered. ‘Look…’

  Olivia turned her head back to the lake; everywhere she looked was on fire. Bright licks of red and gold flames consumed the forests leaving only blackened, charred out husks and skeletal twisted remains spearing out of the devastated ground. Even the lake itself burned, as if it were filled with gasoline and in the center stood the Hell gate. From its mouth poured endless streams of mangled, disfigured creatures and damned souls.

  ‘If he finds the book first, Hell will be unleashed on Earth and Mercy will be the gateway.’

  Olivia took an involuntary step back from the intense wall of heat in front of her. She’d always loved her fire but this sheet of flames before her was nothing but a beast of mass destruction, consuming everything in its path and leaving utter devastation in its wake.

  ‘Don’t make the mistakes we did Olivia.’

  ‘How am I supposed to stop him?’

  ‘I cannot tell you that,’ he replied softly. ‘I am a whisper, a shadow of a past that once was. I cannot help you.’

  ‘Can the book be destroyed?’ she asked. ‘Can you tell me that much at least.’

  ‘The book cannot be destroyed,’ he replied, ‘because it is alive. It will not allow you to destroy it.’

  ‘But how can it be alive?’ she frowned. ‘I don’t understand; it’s a book.’

  ‘It was never just a book. Imagine taking infinite worlds and solar systems, our entire universe and every other in existence and trapping them inside a tiny little pearl. Then multiply it by a thousand and you might get close to understanding just how much power is contained in the books. Do you really think that, that much power would not develop its own consciousness?’

  ‘So my mother was right then,’ Olivia muttered.

  ‘Your mother knows a great deal because she is of your blood,’ he answered, ‘but she is not the one…you are.’

  ‘The one?’

  ‘The book is calling to you Olivia, you hear its song,’ his eyes darkened. ‘You are the only one who can open it.’

  ‘WHAT?’ she hissed, ‘are you crazy? I have no intention of opening it. After what you just told me about your race, there is no way I’m about to risk Armageddon. I was originally going to try and destroy it, but if I can’t do that I am going to drop it in the deepest, darkest crevice of the ocean where no one can find it.’

  ‘You can’t,’ he answered simply. ‘Eventually it will resurface, someone will find it. Inevitably it will end up in the wrong hands and you will have failed.’

  ‘How can you put this on me?’ she snapped resentfully, ‘why me?’

  ‘It has to be you Olivia, because it can be no other.’

  Olivia sighed deeply and stared out across the lake. The vision of the fire and destruction was gone to be replaced once again with the cold motionless Hell gate. She felt a cold, wet drip on her cheek as thick, fat droplets of rain began to spill from the sky and a distant rumble of thunder vibrated the wooden jetty beneath her feet.

  ‘What is your name?’ she asked after a moment.

  ‘Why is it important? It is irrelevant.’

  ‘Because I want to know,’ she insisted.

  For a moment a long silence stretched out between them and Olivia was sure he wouldn’t answer.

  ‘Rhys,’ he finally replied softly. ‘My name was Rhys.’

  �
��Did you have a family Rhys?’

  ‘Yes,’ he whispered, his eyes filled with painful memories. ‘I could not save them, but there is still chance to save yours Olivia. Don’t waste it.’

  She turned back to the lake.

  ‘I have to find the book.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And when I do, I am responsible for it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘So I have to keep it safe?’

  ‘Olivia, you still don’t understand do you?’ he turned to face her more fully, drawing her gaze back to him once more. ‘You’re not just some caretaker, you are a Guardian.’

  ‘There’s not much difference.’

  ‘There’s an entire world of difference,’ he shook his head. ‘The book chooses its Guardian, it chose you Olivia. Do you not understand how special you are? To be a Guardian to one of the five books of power is to stand as its equal. It is quite simply put, a symbiotic bond. Without the book there is no Guardian, and without the Guardian there is no book. It needs you as much as it wants you. You need not fear the book, it will not harm you, in fact it will protect you. It is the others you need to worry about.’

  ‘The others?’

  ‘The others who desire the book, they mean to cause you great harm. They know what you are now. You are changing and creatures of the other worlds, they will be able to sense that change in you. They will try to kill you to prevent you from reaching the book.’

  ‘So what’s new,’ she muttered sourly as the rain began to pelt down harder, soaking her thin shirt and leggings.

  ‘Those who are smart will keep you alive long enough to lead them to the book, then they will kill you before you can take possession of it.’

  ‘I know that.’

  ‘I’m not talking about your enemies Olivia, I’m talking about those closest to you, the people you think you can trust.’

  ‘But how will I know, who…?’

  ‘Trust no one Olivia, no one…I cannot make this clear enough,’ he warned, his dark eyes large and luminous against his pale face as the rain saturated his hair, plastering it to his head. ‘The book is one of the most powerful and seductive objects in existence. They will all be drawn to its siren song and even the most loyal are at risk of being turned.’