The Severed Thread (36 page)

I didn’t own a coffee maker and I never drank coffee in the morning.  When I heard a toilet flush seconds later, I sat bolt upright in bed.  If the sight of the new tattoo hadn’t fully woken me, the sound of a toilet flushing sure as hell did.  Swinging my feet over the side of the bed, I grabbed the baseball bat from behind the edge of the headboard, where I kept it for just such an emergency, and crept to the door.  I peeked around the doorframe, listening.  Someone was moving around in the hall bathroom. 
Who the hell was in my house
?

Hefting the bat over my right shoulder I crept down the hall, stopping just outside the bathroom door.  Heart pounding, I was sure whoever it was could hear my blood pulsing thunderously through my veins. 

Okay Abigail, you can do this
,
I thought
.
  I grabbed the door handle and flung open the door, the bat poised to bash in the head of whomever I found in there.

I froze in the doorway, the bat still held aloft as the door banged against the wall.    This was not possible, I blinked rapidly. 
Not.  Possible
.

“Hey, that was some grand entrance,” Jason said with a laugh from the sink where he had been washing his hands.  A series of fading bruises were visible on his face and creeping from under the neckline of his shirt.  “Can’t a guy pee in private around here?” 

I continued to stand there, bat in hand, mouth open, heart pounding.

“What’s wrong with you?  You look like you saw a ghost,” Jason joked with a smile.  I snapped.

“What’s wrong with me?” I yelled.  “What’s wrong with
me
?”  Hysteria was rising. 

“Hey, are you okay?”  Jason’s good natured smile faded, his brows furrowing into a look of concern. 

“No,” I said, drawing out the word.  “I’m definitely
not
okay.” I dropped the bat on the floor where it landed with a loud thump and clatter.  I pointed at him.  “Wait here!”

I stormed down the hall to the kitchen.  On the counter sat an automatic coffee maker that did not belong to me.  It looked like the one from Jason’s townhouse.  The townhouse I had not gone over to clean out yet.  The one he no longer lived in because he was
dead
!  I was about to start hyperventilating. 

“Naris,” I whispered, putting my hand out to support myself against the counter.

“Abigail.”  I looked up at the sound of his voice.  His wings were a blue corona that framed his body and I immediately thought of my new tattoo.  Had Naris marked me too?

“Why is my dead brother in my guest bathroom?”  A dead brother I kept expecting to show up in the kitchen at any moment.

“We have stepped outside of time for a moment,” he explained.  “Jason cannot be allowed any knowledge of the other timeline.”   It was then that I noticed that everything around us was eerily quiet – no birds chirping or dogs barking, no droning of planes or traffic in the distance.

“The other timeline?” I asked in confusion.

“Jason’s thread has been rewoven into The Plan’s tapestry as originally intended.”  His statement brought back bits and pieces of last night’s dream.

“So last night when I met Aadi – that wasn’t a dream?”

He shook his head, watching me warily.  

“The rewoven thread that he spoke of was Jason?”

“Yes.”

“And that was my boon.”  I did not say it like a question.  I was trying to work through all of the pieces of a very confusing puzzle.  “So what was the gift you gave me?” I asked.

“That is something you will discover in time.”

“Does it have anything to do with the new ink I have on my wrist?”

“The two are related,” he replied, nodding.

I was thinking about the dream, trying to remember more.  “Aadi said that the
second
alteration of the Plan was my boon.  What was the first alteration?”

Naris looked uncomfortable, like he didn’t want to answer my question.  My mind raced as he continued to look at me without answering. 

“If Jason being rewoven was my boon,” I said, trailing off as I tried to work it out.  I took off in another direction.  “That day in the hospital you said that The Plan previously had his death written well into the future.  So it makes sense that the first alteration was his death.”  I looked up at him for confirmation, certain I was on the right track.   

“You are correct,” he conceded with a single nod. 

“So, why was The Plan changed in the first place?”  I wanted to know what was so important that it required Jason’s death?  Naris looked away from me a moment, as if he knew I wouldn’t like his reply.  When he looked back at me, I couldn’t identify the emotion I saw there.  Dread maybe?

“It was a test.”

“What type of…?”  I froze.  “No,” I whispered as I back away from him in horror.  A flash of revulsion shot through me.  I felt sick.  I clutched my stomach, gasping.  It couldn’t be true.

Aadi had said Naris’ faith in me was well placed and that my insight was another indicator that they had chosen well.  The Plan was changed to test me. 
Jason
was murdered to test me!
 
 I think I died inside a little at the realization.   Right on the heels of that was a scorching anger that swelled and crashed into me like a tsunami.  

“Jason was slaughtered in my driveway as a fucking
test
?” I screamed at Naris while slamming him in the chest with both hands.  He was lucky I had left that bat back in the bathroom with Jason.  My berserker writhed inside me.  I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and started to slowly count backwards.  When I felt more in control, I opened my eyes to look at Naris.

“I am sorry Abigail,” he said with his hands out, eyes pleading for my understanding.  “When I told them I had faith in you, it was not my intention to cause you so much suffering.”

“Yeah well, you know what they say about the road to Hell and good intentions,” I spat.  He did not reply, continuing instead to watch me warily.  I paced to the window, looking out across the lawn, my back to him.  I felt so many things simultaneously; angry, confused, hurt, shame that Jason had gone through that agony because of me – even if he didn’t remember it now. 
Thank God he didn’t remember it now!
  And overriding it all, the beginnings of a blazing happiness that Jason was alive. 

“I want to know what all this was about.  Why was I tested?” I asked him without turning from the view beyond window. 

He came to stand beside me before answering.  I knew he was watching me but I couldn’t make myself look at him yet.  I was too angry.  “You were tested to see if my faith in you was well placed.  It was.”

“Yeah, I already got that part,” I said, swirling my hand in a ‘get on with it’ gesture.  “What’s the rest?”

“You have been chosen to be a Guardian.”

“
What?
” My mouth fell open as I turned towards him, astonishment momentarily overshadowing my anger.

“One has not been chosen in nearly four thousand years,” he said it like I should be impressed.  Maybe later I would care enough to be flattered but right now I was too offended by their methods.  I felt like a mouse that had been running through a maze in some hideous science experiment.  There was still one thing I did want to know though.

“What made ‘those that decide’,” I said making exaggerated finger quotes, “determine that I should be a Guardian?”

“All potential Guardians are assigned a protector and mentor when they are children.”  I looked up at him in surprise and opened my mouth to ask the obvious question.  He forestalled me by putting up his hand, warding off my query.  “Yes, you were always seen as having the potential and I was sent to foster that latent possibility.”  Well that explained a lot.  I had wondered my whole life why I was the only one I had ever heard of with a Guardian. 

“What do Guardians do besides foster new Guardians?”  Surely there had to be more to their existence than the continuation of their little club.

“That is something we will get to later.”  Frustration was fanning my anger.  I could never get a straight answer.

“Do they teach that?” 

His eyebrows knitted in puzzlement.

“Evasion.”

“I’m simply trying to answer the original question without getting lost in the minutia.”  I snorted but he ignored me.  This was my life he was talking about and he was calling it minutia. 

“The question at hand is why you were ultimately chosen, correct?”

Grudgingly I nodded.

“There were many small things but in the end, your ability to overcome your inner rage and make peace with your berserker was the final obstacle to your acceptance.  You are the first elf since the plague to successfully contain their berserker after it had broken free.  You were able to pull back from the rage and see the true path.  It is a truly remarkable feat.”

I looked over at him, unimpressed with his reasoning.  I did not want any part of what they were offering.  I was too hurt, too angry and his continued evasiveness was not helping.

“Remarkable feat or not, you can tell your buddy Aadi that I’m not interested,” I replied, looking over at him to make sure he knew I was serious.  Naris’s eyes slanted to the left as he looked out the window again, silent.  My shoulders slumped and I sighed as he continued to take in the view without responding. 

“I already consented didn’t I?  When I accepted your gift?”  I wasn’t sure who I was more disgusted with, myself or Naris.

“There is more to the gift than that, but yes,” he nodded, “you have already accepted.”  I
knew
there were strings attached to the offer when it was made.  I should have never trusted Naris.  This was turning out exactly like that damn cat… not at all as I had expected.

Epilogue

I coiled my hair upon my head and turned this way and that trying to decide if a bare neck was the right thing for the evening.  I released the coil, letting the thick spiral of hair fall down my back and shook it loose.  Down, definitely
down
. 

The last two weeks had been an emotional roller coaster, and I was still getting my bearings.  Eventually I got over my initial spitting anger enough to talk to Naris about the changes that resulted from the second alteration of The Plan.  After all, I was able to remember the timeline where Jason died but nothing about the new timeline.  Naris explained that this was because I was with him and Aadi during the reweaving of Jason’s thread.

Many of the things followed closely to the events as I remembered.  The major changes were that Jason did not die that morning in my driveway.  I had run out as the goons were roughing him up, and they left before they did any permanent damage.  Jason was still injured - badly.  He was staying with me while he recuperated.  Apparently I had insisted. 

Liam McCallister had held me accountable for Jason’s failure to deliver the Sapphire.  And Corbin had still marked me as Pack in his worry over my involvement in McCallister’s replacement shipments.  As a result, Jonathan Wilder had Sampson training me to defend myself.  Pack members needed to be strong, they were never prey.  This was Sampson’s mantra and he took every opportunity to remind me of it.  I had bruises on my bruises, but I was learning.

My father was still the same bastard he had always been.  He saw an opportunity to cover his embezzlement of the retirement fund money and took it.  In both timelines my father hired Andrei and Luca to handle the Jason problem.  In the repaired timeline he had only requested that Jason be roughed up as a warning.

I’m happy to report that Harvey, Andrei and Luca’s threads were still lying on The Plan’s cutting room floor, never to bother me or mine again.  I will be eternally grateful and confused by Alexander’s actions in my kitchen that night.  You can imagine my initial surprise that he was the one to kill Luca was compounded when I learned from Corbin that Alexander was the one to carry me to the couch and bandage the cuts on my wrists and chest.  Completely bizarre, right?

My berserker and I were speaking regularly and her vocabulary was increasing.  I haven’t told anyone yet that she and I were communicating, other than Naris, of course.  It was too raw, too personal, to share with anyone else.

Naris informed me that anything that happened in the first timeline was the result of choices the individuals involved were capable of making.  Knowing that my father was
capable
of making the choice to end Jason’s life, and mine for that matter, was enough for me – I’m still officially done with my father and Lassiter Shipping. 

I’m still not sure what the rest of Naris’ gift entails.  For now I’m taking things day by day.  Hopefully whatever it is will help me with my new career as a Locator.  I plan on hanging out my own shingle and seeing where that road takes me.  I’m sure the Interspecies Bureau will have something to say about that.  I’m currently working on a good story to explain my previously undisclosed Location skills.  I’m also counting on Corbin to have some ideas to help with that.  Oh, and Samantha is coming with me.  I love my friends.

The doorbell rang.  I dropped my chin to my chest and took several deep breaths before opening it.  I fully anticipated continuously grinding my teeth for the next day and a half.

“Why Abigail, you look lovely,” Liam said from just beyond the door.  His dark eyes examined me from head to toe appreciatively.  I rolled my eyes as I slipped into my coat before grabbing my bag and purse where they waited beside the door.

“Thanks,” I said as I joined him outside.  I ignored the hand that reached for my overnight bag as I strode past him towards the waiting car where Seamus stood holding open the rear passenger door.  “But don’t get any ideas.  This is me fulfilling an obligation.” 
Under duress
, I mentally added.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he chuckled as I breezed past him to slip into the backseat. 

The End

Acknowledgements

I have to say a very special thank you to everyone who helped me along the way to completing this book.  Stacey and Linda for reading it when it was really,
really
rough and for reading it again when it was only a bit smoother!  The insight that you both provided regarding your initial feel for the characters was immensely helpful.  Gail and Gabby for doing a first pass at proofreading and offering your much appreciated encouragement.  My friends Jennifer and Amy for being proofreading machines!  How I could have read through this manuscript a zillion times and still not have found the typos you both did still amazes me.  Finally to Joe, for putting up with me spending hours at my desk and for not grumbling too loudly when the occasional late night plot concept forced me to dash straight from bed to my computer!