Chapter 21 Part 2

    Georgia closed the gap quickly and sat down on the bench beside Carol Anne. Her golden eyes gazed into the other woman’s wide grey eyes searching. It had been so long, so many centuries since she had seen her sister that she felt another surge of emotion that she had long since forgotten. She would have thought it was love but she considered love a weakness so she equated the feeling to respect.

    She searched for her sister’s soul in the woman and felt hollow when she found no sign of her; instead flashes of pictures entered her sight. Flashes of tears and blood others of hatred and humiliation. The ground gently shook beneath their feet as Georgia’s anger raged to the surface. Knowing the guardian was coming up behind her didn’t matter; she would rip the man apart that she saw in the memories of her sister.

    “You are not at full power.” She heard in her head. “I saw what you saw but there is another way to handle this.” Georgia hated that she was right and grit her teeth against Skye’s words that did nothing to help her rage. “Or… Chase can kill you and I’ll be back to myself again.”

    That last sentence checked her and her expression softened as she took in the fear in Carol Anne’s eyes. Chase was directly behind her now and on full guard. He had a curved knife with a Hematite grip within quick reach of his hand. It was the only thing that could do long lasting damage to her. “Down dog.” She said sweetly and he stood perfectly still but ready. She turned her attention back to Carol Anne and spoke softly. “Sister…I’ve seen your horrors and this will be dealt with.” She reached out to touch her and the bonds restraining Carol Anne fell away but she didn’t move away. Carol Anne sat frozen before her staring into those eyes. “I know that your plan is to leave, I have seen this…but I need you to go back. I won’t lose you after finally finding you.” She paused. “It is not really you though…but I will keep your vessel safe until I find your soul.” Georgia could compel men and women but never a sister. She had to trust that Carol Anne would listen and Georgia never trusted anyone.

    She stood with the grace of a queen and her eyes never left Carol Anne’s face. “One more night sister and we will be together again.” As she turned, she looked up at Chase. “I know enough to know that if I go in there and see that man he’ll die by my hand and you will have to kill me.” She noted how fierce and handsome he looked at this moment. “I also know that since 2 souls dwell in this vessel, if you kill me, you will kill her and without a soul inhabiting this body…” her eyes flicked to the awning of the shop. “We will both die…and not return.”

    Georgia felt Skye’s immediate fear spike through her. Chase didn’t change his expression but his body visibly relaxed. She raised her hand slowly and placed it on his chest. He flinched, not so much seen as felt and when she looked into his eyes again her golden eyes were replaced by green ones and the hand touching him was shaking.

    Skye dropped her hand and turned to where Carol Anne was still speechless on the bench. She took in Skye’s now green eyes, the colour drained from her face and she fainted.

    Skye looked at Chase with pleading eyes. His only response was a grunt and leaned down to pick up Carol Anne. “We need to talk.” He said gruffly.

   “You think?” she snapped and he gave her an incredulous look as he lifted the unconscious woman. Feeling ashamed of her reaction she was reminded that she had been in almost the same position as the woman he was holding not so long ago. “Sorry.”

    The bell rang as the shop door opened and Skye held it open for Chase to sidestep through. They heard the voices in the next room and heard Robert haggling with Leigh. They exchanged a glance and understood. She motioned him towards a Victorian sofa made of dark wood and lush green well-worn fabric. The scroll work on the high back and arms was elegant and it creaked gently when Chase laid Carol Anne down.

    The creak drew Leigh’s attention and she gasped and ran into the room. Robert turned, saw his wife laying there with Chase standing above her and something flashed across his face. It was not care or concern. Both Skye and Chase caught it before it turned to feigned concern for his wife’s condition as he hurried into the room. Chase stepped back when Robert approached and kneeled down next to his wife. He didn’t look at anyone as he asked. “What happened?”

   The lie came easily to Skye and she had a feeling that it wasn’t her that the explanation was coming from. “I was outside talking to Chase and she just passed out by the pond!” She couldn’t stop talking. “I asked Chase to bring her here because you know, I couldn’t carry her. The poor thing I hope she’s ok!” She forced herself to put a hand on Roberts shoulder…she shouldn’t have. She felt his hatred, felt his enjoyment of hurting her and even felt his shame that he liked hurting her so much.

    Visions of brutal violence hit her but it wasn’t his violence, it was Georgia’s. Visions of her hand breaking through his chest, through the muscle and bone past the breastplate to his beating heart. The image of blood pooling around her hand and flowing down her wrist before it stopped at the elbow and splashed to the floor.

   The grotesque image of her hand closing around his heart and squeezing rattled her but only for a moment.

    To Skye’s surprise she calmly removed her hand and stepped back only to hit a solid body. Chase’s warmth soaked into her and she relaxed even though her emotions were a storm inside of her. Her desire to save Carol Anne was absolute.

    She felt Georgia smile.

Chapter 21 Part 1

    Carol-Anne briefly looked at Odds & Ends just as Robert was walking into another room. She also took note of the big man on the phone smoking outside the door shaded by the green awning. She had never seen him before and she was all too aware of how attractive he was. At the same time she was thankful that he wasn’t paying her any mind.

    It was time.

    Her anxiety was screaming at her while her muscles were so tense that they hurt as the moment to run over took her thoughts but in that moment, that fraction of a second her eyes fell upon a flash of gold and a shock trembled through her. She tried to stand but her body was frozen and couldn’t move. She could feel the invisible bonds holding her still crawling across her skin. Her terror was absolute as she tried to scream and no sound came out. Sweat started to form on her brow instantly as she panicked and mentally shattered.  Trembling, she turned her head again and the realization of that settled in quickly enough that she picked up the pieces of her mind and tried to think it through.

    She thought to herself in the quick hurried bursts of logic that she used to get her through her nights in the pit when she thought Robert would leave her down there so long she thought she would die there. “Maybe if I can get his attention…” she thought to herself as she turned her head towards him. Luck was on her side because he was looking at her. All she could do was plead with her eyes and hope he could see that she needed help and wasn’t just some weirdo staring at him.

    “Please, please, please.” Carol-Anne begged in her head and the tears began to flow down her cheeks. She watched him look up one side of the road and then the other, tilting his head back. He smelt the air. She couldn’t take it much longer and she knew it. Questions were swirling around her head; her heart was pounding in fear but not only the fear of what was happening to her but also the fear of her window closing.

    The man stood stock-still, calmly speaking words into the phone that she couldn’t hear as the door beside him opened and he turned to a woman that she recognized as she stepped out onto the sidewalk. Carol-Anne watched the man move to touch her only to stop and drop his hand away. The woman staggered towards her. Each step she took towards her ramped up her fear even more. The gold eyes were roaming over Carol-Anne’s face. Moving back and forth, searching her eyes, looking for something.

    She tried more frantically to wriggle free with everything she had but nothing would move for her, nothing would work. She noticed that the man was now moving also. He moved slowly but quick judgment told her that he would be ready to act in a heartbeat.

    It only gave her a moment of hope. Carol-Anne was drawn back to the golden eyes and saw a look of longing there. She stopped her struggle and got lost in those eyes.

    Chase was on the phone with Dominic when Georgia came out of the store. He was going to grab a hold of Skye when noticed the look on her face and knew Georgia had taken over. The difference was in the way she was carrying herself. She paid mind to nothing other than the woman in the park, something else he took as strange because Georgia didn’t care about anything other than herself. That could only mean one thing.

   “Fuck… She’s out boss, I don’t know what happened in there but she’s out.” Chase said calmly. Dominic was cursing in his ear but all of his words fell away when he scented the air and found nothing that he expected to be there. “Why is she alone?” he said more to himself than Dominic but the statement set Dom on alert in a way very few things did.

    “Alone?” Dominic asked but he thought he knew the answer already. “Chase, are they with her?”

    Chase felt the energy shift and it was light compared to what he was used to with Georgia. He walked closely behind her and knew he couldn’t interrupt her in this state. Even without her full power she could do real damage and he would need backup to contain her if that happened. His eyes shifted between her and the woman on the bench whose eyes were pleading and terrified. “Good…” He thought to himself. “She bound her?” he put his filed thoughts away to examine later while he took in the situation before him.

    Dominic asked again. “Chase…Are. They. With her?”

    In a low voice, almost a growl Chase responded. “No, there are no Guardians near her. She doesn’t know. She’s just the vessel.” That relaxed them both for a moment and Dom cursed again. The problem was that Georgia had recognized the red-head and that was not a good thing. Her Guardians were nowhere to be seen. They shouldn’t be seen but she should have a handler. They should always be watching but not interfere unless the Soul found its way back. There should not be two here in this town though, never… it was too dangerous and by watching Georgia and the way she was looking at the woman, he knew trouble was coming.

   Dom snapped him out of it for a moment. “I’ll call Maury and send a couple of other guys. Can you contain this?”

   Without hesitation Chase replied. “It’s my duty.” He paused and added “Now.”

 

Chapter 20 Part 3

Chase stared at the three mountains of paper he had been sorting through for the last hour trying make heads or tails of what was in front of him. On his left were the papers that Deacon had handled and everything lined up, all the numbers, the ins and out were all in order. On the right was the paperwork that Skye had been doing since Deacon died and although it was a mess he could figure out what she had been doing. A rough effort contributed by her, but an effort none the less. Directly in front of him were various pieces of paper, rough receipts and half scribbled half worn away ink, mostly with no dates on them.

    He sat back in the chair and for a brief moment wondered how Deacon did it. The desk work, the business and even the family but his cousin had always been the family man, the one who cared about others when Chase only cared about his pack. Nothing and no one else mattered. Deacon was content to build a life over and over with Skye and once she became pregnant with Cyrus the man practically glowed. It was still unknown to them how that happened after three centuries but after Cyrus was born it had all been forgotten until she got pregnant again with Kyra. They tried to find out something but it was unheard of among other Guardians and even if they wanted to talk to the witches, they would never tell them anything. In the end they had all hoped that it meant the end of the curse.

    Unfortunately they were wrong.

    He heard light footsteps in the hall and ran his hand through his hair…yet again. A moment later Skye poked her head in the door.

    When she saw his hair standing on its disheveled ends she knew that he had taken a good look at how she screwed up and how much trouble the business was really in. Steeling herself for either anger or disappointment she slipped in the door and shut it quietly behind her.

    “I figured I should check on you before Leigh tries to sneak in here and if that happens then you won’t get anything done.” It came out softer than she had intended as the shame worked its way into her words.

    He said nothing which wasn’t unusual for Chase. She stepped further into the room and he looked up at her, opened his mouth and closed it again showing that he didn’t really know what to say.

    She knew that she wouldn’t be able to take the silence from him especially since he was the only one that knew and could possible help her. Even if it wasn’t what she wanted at first but for the first time in a long time, she didn’t feel alone. Skye could feel Georgia stirring inside of her and she fought the anger. This was too important right now.

    “Well say something…” she asked “tell me I’m stupid or that I have no head for business, tell me that you can make something out of it or that we can fix it.” We?  She would dissect that later. Now she had moved directly in front of the desk and shifted from foot to foot. Her nerves were betraying her now. Before everything had happened she was rock solid in her resolve and attitude. Staring at this man who had just found out her biggest secret besides the one she never knew she had was wreaking havoc in her head.

    He blinked and seemed to come back from wherever he was. “It’s bad…but I’m not sure how bad it is, so I’m going to take everything back to the house tonight and go through them.” He smiled a little then. “I’m good with numbers,” he said. “But very bad with people.”

    “Gee, you don’t say.” She smiled genuinely as a knock sounded at the door. Skye saw Chase tense at the sound but knew it wasn’t because he was startled. She was learning about them while they learned about her and she knew that he knew exactly who was on the other side of the door.

   The door opened wide and Leigh stood in the doorway with her hand on her hip and her head tilted so that her brown hair cascaded in thick waves over her shoulder. Skye smirked at her obvious display but Leigh just shrugged and walked past her to sit on the corner of the desk. Skye turned and waited for her to say something, but nothing came. When Leigh leaned down to look at the paperwork Chase stood up and her eyes followed him instantly as he walked around the desk.

   As he went to pass Skye he stopped shoulder to shoulder with her or shoulder to head since she was on the short side compared to him. “I’m going out for a smoke. I need…” he paused looking for the words so he didn’t insult anyone. “a moment.”  

    Skye understood that and all the while knowing full well he was trying to create physical space between himself and Leigh. She knew he didn’t want to be here but he was, for her, to protect her and as much as she tried not to she had begun to worry about his opinion and it bothered her that Leigh was practically throwing herself at him. She turned to her friend with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “What did you come in here for?” Skye asked.

    “Oh! That man is so sexy I completely forgot!” she got off the desk and straightened her blouse even though it didn’t need straightening. “Robert is here! He’s looking for a new painting for his den.” Skye felt a surge of hope rise inside of her. She knew that he was one of their best customers and that he spared no expense if he truly liked something.

    “Well then…let’s go show him what we’ve got.”

    Skye walked out of the room with Leigh just in time to see Chase as he walked past Robert and give him the once over. Time slowed down as she watched and she felt Georgia come forward. Not fully but she had an interest in something that she was seeing through Skye’s eyes. If Chase wasn’t trying to intimidate the man then he was doing an awful job at it. Robert stood eye to eye with him but Roberts’s body was submissive as the big man strode toward the door.

    Before he went outside Chase turned back and looked at their customer, his eyes flashed for a brief second but he continued on his way outside. Skye could feel Georgia taking in the man as she welcomed him at the counter and told him that they had just had some paintings delivered that morning and that he could help unwrap them.

    “Where is your lovely wife?” Skye asked knowing that she was in the park. Robert always told them that she wasn’t interested in Antiques and that she loved to sit by the pond and wait. True to form he told them the same thing again and followed Leigh over to the crates at the back of the room. Skye leaned to the side to look out the window and she saw the red head sitting on the bench just as she had turned her head to look at her. Skye felt the shove back more forceful than she ever had from Georgia so far and in a flash she was in the back of their shared mind. Georgia had come all the way forward. Skye could feel Georgia’s mixture of emotions from shock, confusion and the most startling was elation.

    “Georgia…what is it?” Skye asked hoping that she would grant her the answer but Georgia paid no attention to Skye, she was focused on the bench.

    “Sister…” She whispered.

Chapter 20 Part 2

   Carol-Anne woke up that morning as alert as an alley cat tracking a mouse. She wished that she could feel as confident as the cat would but all in all her senses were wide open in nervous anticipation of the day. She went to her closet to pick out what to wear, not that it mattered to her, she would much rather be comfortable but Robert would want her to wear something that made her look like the perfect, pretty little housewife. Clothes whispered as she shifted the hangers across the rod and her thoughts wandered to her plan.

    Today is the day that she’s going to break free. “This is it…” She thought to herself. “This is the day I get out of here.” Carol-Anne had made sure that everything she needed was stashed away. The only things she wouldn’t be able to control would be how to get to the accounts. She had her identification so all she needed was one card, one card from his wallet and she could get to the accounts. Her ribs felt much better although she wasn’t sure if they really felt better or if the adrenaline she was pumping out was masking the pain. She could hear Robert whistling as he usually did when they were going to Odds & Ends. She picked out her clothes and hurriedly got dressed in fear of keeping him waiting if he was ready before she was.

    Robert liked to get there early so that he could see new stock if any, as soon as it was removed from the box. Carol-Anne came downstairs wearing her best navy blue skirt and a deep green blouse to set off her red hair. Robert always liked her to look conservative and beautiful while she waited for him on the little park bench in the sunlight. If he found something he liked then he would want to make love to her later and the thought made her stomach churn. To everyone else she was a pretty picture that he owned and little did he know that today, underneath the conservative clothes she had on her athletic gear and even though she was wearing low sensible heals, in her purse were a pair of soft flat slippers. They weren’t much but they would protect her feet from the rough pavement.

    She checked her face in the mirror while Robert gathered the rest of his things. He checked his wallet for her bank and credit cards and quickly ushered her out of the house and into the car thankfully she noticed that in his hurry he didn’t set the alarm. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Not quickly but a steady thud that would echo in her ears, she couldn’t hear the radio, the engine or even Roberts constant whistling. She heard nothing but the beat of her heart as she tried to remain calm.

    She swallowed and tested the waters. “Honey did you set the alarm?” she said in her best good girl voice.

    He stopped and just looked at her then. She saw the quick shift of emotions on his face plain as day that she questioned him and then the look softened.

    “No I don’t believe I did.” Almost mechanically he deposited her in the passenger seat and went back inside to enter the code to lock the house.

    The monitors were right there and she knew that if she made a move now that he would see her so she sat with her hands in her lap until he came back and got in the car. It was one of the hardest things she ever had to do especially because his wallet was right there in the compartment between the seats. Her nerves were already fried and they hadn’t left the driveway.

    “I can do this; I just need to relax no matter what, even if I don’t get the money.” She thought to herself.

    The long road was just being touched by the rising sun as they drove down the mountains twisty lane, the golden rays bouncing off of the leaves of the trees when Robert suddenly stopped whistling. From the corner of her eye she saw him turn his head towards her. He looked at her for a few seconds and cocked his head curiously. Carol-Anne started to lose the fight with staying calm. “He knows…” she thought. “He knows I’m going to try and get away.” Anxiety spiked and she thought her heart was going to break through the breastplate. She tried not to move and keep still until she saw his hand drift up off the wheel and move towards her.

    It felt painfully slow as she tried not to shy away from his touch. Feather light he touched a loose wave of her red hair and slid it through his fingers.

    “You are so beautiful.” He whispered. “You are so beautiful and you’re all mine.” She felt her chest fall as she released her breath. Carol-Anne turned to Robert and gave him the most sensual smile she could while her brain thought of ways to hurt him. She realized then that she was about to hurt him without touching him. Nothing belonged to him. Not the house or the money and it would take her some time to get them away from him but once she got to her brother they could start getting everything back.

    So lost in her thoughts Robert had turned his eyes back to the road while she continued to stare at him with revenge in her heart.

    The silence continued on the way to the shop and with each minute they got closer Carol-Anne’s head started to spin as different scenarios danced through her brain. Then the store front came into view and an eerie calm came over her and everything stood out. She could see the blinds being opened by a woman with dark brown hair. She didn’t know her name but she had seen her enough to know that she wasn’t the owner but that she helped Robert almost every time he went in to purchase something.

    Robert almost stopped the car in the middle of the street and became excited. Carol-Anne shook her head and looked out the passenger window at the little lake in the park where her bench waited. He regained his composure and parked the car. She knew better than to try and get out before he opened the door for her. People thought he was chivalrous but it was all about controlling her.

    For her his childlike excitement disgusted her. It made her think of what it was about him that she was interested in when they first started dating. As much as her hatred for him was blossoming right at this moment she smiled sweetly before she turned towards the park with a slight sway in her hips that did not go unnoticed by Robert.

    What did go unnoticed was that when he had gotten out of the car and he was distracted by watching the shop open, she had taken one of the lesser of the credit cards from his wallet. One she didn’t think he would miss since he used the flashiest ones for his purchases. He didn’t think long about her sudden shift. He watched her walk to the bench and sit crossing her legs as the wind rustled her hair gently. She looked over at him once and smiled.

    He immediately turned on a heel and strode away. Her smile was genuine as she tilted her face to the warming sun and said goodbye.