Crossroads (44 page)

‘It’s a child!’

‘It’s not a child’ he growled, ‘kill it now!’

He could hear Olivia calling out to him from somewhere further down the tunnel and he knew he had to find her. Giving a roar of disgust and frustration he ran the demon through, his heart aching as he watched the innocent looking form slide lifelessly to the floor that was now stained black with blood. They climbed over body parts and corpses until they reached Olivia.

‘We have to get to the Crossroad now!’ she shouted as they approached.

Nodding in agreement, Sam went first, cutting and hacking his way through to clear a path for them, as Theo hung back to protect Olivia, killing anything that got too close to her.

‘There’s so many of them,’ she breathed heavily as they climbed over more dead.

‘They’re not called the hordes of Hell without reason’ Sam panted. ‘I can see the end of the tunnel, keep moving.’

They finally burst out of the end of the tunnel but something grabbed Olivia’s ankle and she hit the ground hard. She rolled over to see a hand grasping onto her leg. Worryingly, the hand was attached to an arm and part of a torso but that was it. She screamed and kicked at it but it held firm. It yanked her hard, scraping her back against the hard ground as it dragged her back towards the tunnel. Theo grabbed her and pulled her back towards him as Sam seized a spear from a nearby corpse and thrust it through the wrist of Olivia’s captor, pinning it to the ground and forcing it to release her ankle. She scrambled back out of the way as Theo hauled her to her feet, pushing her behind him protectively.

‘STOP THE GIRL!’ Zachary shrieked and suddenly several more demons spewed out of the tunnel heading towards them.

Isabel stepped calmly through the doorway, followed closely by Nathaniel, and the door slowly swung closed behind them. The pathway which led to the center of the Crossroad was much as the others had been, grey flagstones inscribed with an ancient language too worn to decipher correctly. The Crossroad was similar to all the others, with four pathways intersecting at the center and ending at the four compass points, and a large doorway. The whole Crossroad itself was enclosed with a tall circular wall, which was covered with ancient scrubby looking vines. It was dimly lit and although there seemed to be no direct light source, there was a low glow which just seemed to emanate from everywhere and yet nowhere at the same time.

Isabel drifted down the path, absently gravitating to the center, while Nathaniel glanced around warily, looking for the keeper. This Crossroad may have been similar in design if not in size but he knew Epsilon was the oldest and the most powerful of all the Crossroads.

Isabel stopped in the dead center and glanced around.

‘What do we have here?’ a strange voice crackled from beside them.

Isabel peered into the darkness on either side of the path and as her gaze became accustomed to the gloom she made out an old lady sitting in a rocking chair, knitting something of no clear shape, from a rather unsavory and unattractive looking ball of rough brownish grey yarn. The woman rocked back in her chair, her needles clicking furiously as she watched them.

‘Come into the light,’ Nathaniel commanded.

She cackled in the darkness, ‘I don’t take orders from demons.’ She leaned forward far enough for the light of the Crossroad to highlight her old and misshapen face, ‘especially you Nathaniel…’

‘YOU…’ his eyes widened and he exhaled slowly…

‘I’ve waited a long time to cross paths with you again,’ she hissed, revealing rows of blackened teeth.

‘I wondered what happened to you,’ he smirked. ‘The last time we met you looked a lot prettier.’

‘The last time we met I ended up sentenced to the Crossroad,’ she glared at him hatefully.

‘Water under the bridge,’ he shrugged, ‘we’re here to do business. Isabel…’ he called to her, his gaze still fixed smugly on the stooped old woman, ‘come here and ask her for the location of the book.’

‘Still flogging that dead horse are you?’ the old woman asked insultingly.

‘Isabel…’ Nathaniel turned towards her, ‘ask her for the location of the book.’

Isabel turned her dark whiskey colored eyes on him and the blank look drained from her eyes, revealing a sharp defiance.

‘No,’ she whispered quietly, her mouth curving into a slow smile.

‘What?’ he hissed. ‘I said, ask her for the location of the book.’

‘Did you really think it was that easy?’ she answered smoothly. ‘Did you really think I would be so easily manipulated?’

He took an involuntary step back in shock. Gone was the unstable demanding woman he’d first encountered when she raised him from the devil’s trap. Gone was the lethargic dreamlike state she had portrayed for the last several weeks. Gone was the mask of a broken mind and impending madness, and in front of him stood an icy cool dangerous woman, very much in control of her own mind.

‘Stupid…stupid little demon…’ she tutted slowly as the old woman began cackling in delight behind her.

Ignoring Nathaniel, she turned to the woman and smiled coolly. ‘I’m here to make a deal.’

She shot a smug look at Nathaniel and turned back to Isabel, rubbing her dirty hands together in delight, ‘and what exactly is your heart’s desire?’

Her voice when she finally spoke was dripping with ice and her smile was so sharp it could have sliced with the precision of a scalpel.

‘I want to be the most powerful witch who ever lived…’

‘NO!’ Nathaniel growled and stepped forward, only to be pushed back by an invisible barrier.

‘Ah, ah, ah,’ the old woman shook her head gleefully, ‘no interfering whilst terms are being discussed. This does not involve you, demon.’

He hissed and stalked the edge of the barrier, baring his rotten teeth, his face livid with rage.

‘He looks very angry,’ she smiled delightedly.

‘Yes he does,’ Isabel replied mildly, ‘but his mood doesn’t concern me. I have told you what I want, can you give it to me or not?’

‘Of course I can,’ she spread her hands widely. ‘There’s very little I can’t do, but that kind of power won’t come cheap. The question is, what are you willing to pay?’

‘Name your price.’

Isabel watched as the old woman studied her carefully. She tugged at the long lone hair protruding from her chin and sucked her teeth loudly in consideration.

‘Well,’ she murmured, ‘your request is not uncommon and it is really upsetting Nathaniel, which is very pleasing to me and so I am willing to deal.’ She beckoned Isabel closer with one craggy finger.

Isabel leaned in as the old woman whispered in her ear. Her eyes widened a fraction and she turned sharply towards her, almost as if to ascertain if she was serious. She took an unconscious step back, her face troubled.

‘Not so easy when it actually has a price on it, is it?’

Isabel stared at her, her mind churning. Everything she had ever wanted was right there within her grasp, all she had to do was reach out and take it. There was a small voice at the back of her mind telling her that it was too much, the price was too steep, that she would lose something she would never get back. But that voice was pushed ruthlessly aside and when she straightened her spine and stared straight into the old woman’s eyes she nodded slowly.

‘Agreed.’

She clapped her hands together in delight, cackling loudly.

‘Very well, let us shake on it and be aware that it is binding, there is no changing your mind or going back now.’

‘I understand.’

She held her hand out and Isabel reached out and clasped it firmly, gasping loudly as she felt a strange kind of wrenching deep inside her. Suddenly her body flooded with energy. She could feel the heady whip of power as it flooded her veins like adrenalin, while her mind was filled with centuries upon centuries of knowledge. As her hand was released she stumbled back gasping heavily. Her heart rate gradually began to settle and she straightened, her eyes no longer the warm aged whiskey color of the West women but now a bright vivid lavender. She ran her fingertips gently across the raised skin of her burn scar and felt as it smoothed out and disappeared. Her hair darkened from dark brown to black and the white streak at her temple disappeared. She stared down at her hands, turning them over as her skin tingled with a power so vast it made her want to rip the top off a mountain, just to see if she could.

‘Intoxicating isn’t it?’ the old woman’s eyes glimmered in amusement.

‘It’s incredible,’ Isabel whispered. ‘All my life I’ve felt the lack, known every woman in my family was strong with the magical gift but not me. I had to strain for it, to beg, borrow or steal the power but not anymore, now there is nothing I can’t do and once I have the book in my possession there will be no one to rival me.’

‘Be very careful Isabel’ she replied, ‘it does not come without a warning. Absolute power, corrupts absolutely. Be very careful you are not consumed by it.’

Isabel cast a cold smile in her direction before turning back to the seething mad demon growling on the other side of the barrier.

‘You can release him now,’ Isabel told her. ‘I will deal with him.’

The old woman smiled cagily.

‘The deal is done’ she shrugged, and the barrier disappeared.

‘ISABEL!’ he roared flying towards her, his rage palpable.

‘Stop,’ she held her hand up lazily and he froze, struggling as if he were held captive by invisible bindings. ‘Stupid demon,’ she spoke coolly her voice laced with disdain, ‘you’re even more arrogant than I am. Did you really think I didn’t know you were manipulating me? I’ve know it ever since you first started whispering to me from Hester’s devil’s trap.’ She shook her head, ‘and you thought I didn’t have any patience. I knew that sooner or later you would have to bring me to the Crossroads because you needed a human to make a deal.’ She leaned in close to him as he bared his teeth at her. ‘You were so busy gloating at a West woman who didn’t have the strong magical gifts of her predecessors, that you didn’t stop to fully understand the gifts I did possess. I’ve been able to read your intentions since the first day, every plan, every machination all there, wide open like a book. It was so easy to play you, to allow you to believe you had control of me.’

‘Why?’ he growled, ‘why keep up the pretense?’

‘Because it amused me to play you at your own game,’ she scoffed. ‘Did you think I didn’t know why you were really destroying the Crossroads? That I didn’t know what you took from the keepers?’ she sneered, ‘such a shame it was all in vain. You see you will never be free; you will stay locked up in that meat suit I put you in until I decide to let you out.’

‘It’s too late Isabel,’ he hissed, ‘it is already weakened. It is only a matter of time until it breaks down and then I am going to rip your throat out…’

‘You think so?’ she laughed.

She raised her hands slowly and mimed tying two laces together and knotting them tightly. Nathaniel hissed in pain as the rotting flesh of his body, which had split open and begun to decay, suddenly wrenched itself back together and sealed itself shut. Large, angry looking stitches began to appear all over his face and body, closing all the gaps and pulling the suit of flesh back together tightly. When she had finished he stared at her hatefully, looking even more like Frankenstein’s monster than he had before.

‘There,’ she smiled sweetly, ‘all tucked in safe and sound.’

‘You bitch,’ he spat.

‘You’re welcome. Now for the finishing touch, just in case you have any more doubts as to who is in charge.’

She snapped her fingers and two large shiny metal cuffs appeared at each wrist, the kind that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a genie in a magic lamp.

‘What have you done?’ he growled, struggling against the invisible bonds holding him.

‘That…’ she smiled cruelly, ‘is a Witch binding and trust me Nathaniel, those cuffs make your demon collar look like a Tiffany necklace.’

He growled and struggled even more. ‘I’m going to strip the flesh from your corpse you fucking bitch.’

‘Temper, temper,’ she tutted. ‘You’re not going to do anything of the sort,’ she smiled gloatingly, ‘those cuffs not only suppress any supernatural abilities but they also bind you to my will. You are my slave now. You no longer have any free will. Welcome to a life of servitude.’

‘NO!’ he growled.

Isabel yawned, ‘that’s enough Nathaniel, you’re really are becoming quite annoying now.’

She flicked her wrist and several vicious looking stitches appeared across his mouth, firmly sealing it shut.

The old woman howled with laughter while Nathaniel glared at her murderously.

‘There, that’s better’ Isabel told him. ‘Did you ever wonder why you were never able to take the book from my family Nathaniel?’ She waited pleasantly for him to answer, knowing full well he couldn’t. ‘No? It’s because you were never meant to have it. You continually underestimated the West women, including me and now you are going to stand by my side and bear witness as I gain possession of the book, because it was always meant to be mine…’

He stared at her in hate filled silence.

‘You know; she wouldn’t have been able to tell you the location of the book even if I had asked for it.’

His eyes cut across to the keeper who was now rocking in her chair comfortably, smoking a long strange thin looking pipe.

‘She’s right,’ the keeper nodded.

‘See, there you go’ Isabel continued, as his eyes swiveled back to her. ‘Underestimating the Wests again. If Hester was powerful enough to seal you in a devil’s trap for three hundred years, do you really think she wasn’t able to hide the book somewhere you’d never find it? She was an incredibly gifted seer, she knew you’d find a way to the Crossroad and so she devised a way to conceal it from every supernatural creature, including a Crossroad keeper.’

She released the invisible bonds holding him and he didn’t move, just stood there staring at her.

‘It was hidden by a West and it has to be found by a West,’ she smiled coldly. ‘Have you figured it out yet? To find the book you must first find Hester before she comes into her gifts fully, before she can see ahead to the Crossroads, back to when the book first passed into her possession.’