Bound by Time (19 page)

Lucian’s light followed her onto the porch. He knelt beside her. “Isobel, what is it? I know Xapar hasn’t slipped past me.”

“Just give me…a minute.” Isobel stared at the grain of the boards beneath her knees, the wide open night already helping. Slowly, the terror ebbed away and the pain eased.

She dropped her forehead into her shaky hand and practiced the slow, deep breathing Elizabeth had taught her.

Lucian shifted next to her. “What happened?”

“I’m sorry. It was a panic attack.” She rose to her feet with his help. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”

“Worry me...” He said the words as if testing them. “No. More like scared the hell out of me. You do realize what Damien will do to me if harm comes to you on my watch, right?”

Isobel gave him a small apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. Really, I am. I would hate for Damien to be angry with you.”

Lucian shook his head. “Isobel, stop apologizing for something you can’t control.” His face grew serious. “It isn’t just Damien. You don’t have all your memories back yet, but we’ve always been friends. Seeing you like that…well, let me just say that I was far more worried about you than I was for my own skin.”

Isobel stared at him. More memories surfaced of other times where Lucian had always been a close friend to both her and Damien. And then she recognized him as one of the men who had fought alongside Damien when she was burned at the stake. “I remember you.” More memories of him filled her mind, of him and Damien trying to get out of Germany with her.

Lucian smiled. “Your memories will come back with time. I’m glad you’re remembering me now though.”

“I wish they would all just come back.”

“They won’t all come back for you. Those that are necessary for your survival, moments in time where there was strong emotion, that kind of thing. A dark angel gets all of his memories because of what he does. A channel doesn’t need century after century of knowledge just the most important parts. In a sense, channels get to live a more normal human life than dark angels.” He leaned against the doorway. “Don’t worry too much about how long it takes. You will have what you need by the time you need it.”

She turned back to the open front door. The lights inside couldn’t compare to the brightness surrounding her. She glanced up at him. “Aren’t you afraid someone is going to drive by and wonder why you’re glowing?”

Lucian laughed as they stepped back into the house. “Only demons, people such as you, and other angels can see the light.”

Damien still slept like the dead when they reached the family room. She sat on the floor in front of the sectional and reached up to brush a few strands of inky black hair off his face. “I’ve never known him to sleep this long or this heavy.”

Lucian resumed his place by the window. “Dark angels don’t usually need more than two or three hours of sleep.” His eyes rested on Damien. “The level of power he held for as long as he did drained him of almost all his energy. It’s a good thing we arrived when we did or he would have killed himself, which would have left you completely open to Xapar.”

She looked up at him startled. “But he’s an angel. How can that kill him? I thought only beheading could do that.”

Lucian’s expression softened. “The power that we wield is very strong. It is meant to be used in short bursts for the protection of our channels not sustained for a full day or more, especially not the level Damien was holding.”

“What about you?” Enough people had died for her; she didn’t want anyone else to.

“It’s draining me too. Isaac will relieve me in a couple of hours.” He shrugged as if it were no big deal. “Then I’ll probably sleep an hour or so longer than usual and eat like crazy when I wake. We bounce back pretty quickly.” He glanced at Damien again. “Unless we push it too far. Then it takes longer for our strength and energy to return.”

I
sobel dozed off and on through the rest of the night. At some point Lucian was gone and in his place was an older man. His black skin and dark eyes a sharp contrast to the white light that rolled off him. His build reminded her of Damien and Lucian, though his face showed a few lines of age. His black wings rose strong and glossy behind him.

She was awake to see the sunrise spreading golden rays into the room that couldn’t compete with the light from Isaac. The older dark angel followed Isobel into the kitchen where she started breakfast. Isaac sat on the far side of the island, his wings filling that end of the room.

Isobel started a pot of coffee then opened the fridge and grabbed out the eggs and bacon. She would have to make a run to the store soon. As she set them on the counter Isaac smiled. “Make plenty. Lucian is going to devour a lot and Damien will likely out eat him. Even I will need to replenish my energy.”

Nodding, she grabbed the pans and began cooking her way through two pounds of bacon. In-between rotating the pans in and out of the oven, she mixed up a large batch of pancakes. As she pulled the first pancake off the griddle, she looked over at the angel who watched her quietly. “Lucian said you and Amelia’s grandmother are soul mates.” The scent of brewing coffee and cooking bacon filled the kitchen.

“Rose.” He nodded, a warm light filling his eyes when he said her name. “We have been through a lot of lives together.”

“Lucian said not everyone gets that. Why?” Isobel flipped another pancake.

Isaac smiled. “Oh they do, eventually. There are a few old souls, like you and Rose that come into this world again and again. There are also new souls being born. A very few of those are destined to come again and become old souls. Lucian will find his as will other dark angels. Love is the greatest gift of the Higher Powers; they won’t deny their dark angels the chance to feel the love that comes with being soul mates. In their infinite wisdom though, they will wait to bestow such a gift until the right soul is born. The one that will be a match for the angel.”

Isobel nodded as she lifted the pancake onto a plate and poured more batter onto the griddle, happy to know that Lucian wasn’t destined to wander the earth alone life after life. “How long have the dark angels been around?”

“Since the first time we were needed. I don’t know exactly how long in years; it has been too many,” Isaac said gently. “Damien, Lucian, Aiden, myself and a handful of others are the oldest, the strongest. We have lived many lifetimes; we get assigned to the strongest channels because they will face the strongest demons.”

“I’m a channel.” Isobel thought of the power inside her that fought for release.

Though it hadn’t been a question, he nodded. “You are.”

She flipped the new pancake then pulled the final pan of bacon from the oven, moving the crisp strips to the pile sitting on a paper towel. “Since the Higher Powers are real does that mean the big bang theory is a bunch of bunk?”

Isaac laughed and shook his head. “Who says it’s bunk because of the Higher Powers? How do you think it went bang in the first place? Dynamite doesn’t explode without some sort of outside help. Why would the universe suddenly do it?”

Isobel thought over her science classes while she continued building a tower of pancakes. After a moment Isaac continued, “This planet formed pretty close to how scientists think it did. However, do you truly think that it’s pure chance that everything happens to be just right to support the kind of life Earth does?” He smiled, his eyes kind. “Or that all the ingredients just happened to be here for so many different forms of life to develop?”

Isobel considered each of the questions. “So the Earth is really millions of years old?”

He gazed up at the ceiling. “More like billions.” He brought his eyes back to hers. “But you must remember the Higher Powers are infinite. Billions of years isn’t so long to them.”

She set the final pancake on the huge stack then started whisking two cartons of eggs up. What he said made sense. Especially when she thought of the things that afflicted people and the many plants that just happened to have the natural compounds to treat many of them. Would pure chance really have done that?

Amelia showed up in the kitchen as Isobel removed the pan of scrambled eggs from the burner. Her friend’s eyes were worried as she crossed the room and threw a tight hug around Isobel. Then she stepped back. Isobel shifted, uncomfortable with the scrutiny as Amelia searched her face. “How are you doing?”

Isobel gave a wry laugh. “You mean other than the fact that I have a demon trapped in my upstairs window that keeps trying to drive me insane and kill me? I’m doing fine.”

Amelia reached out and took her hand, squeezing it, a worried look on her face. “I should have paid more attention to the aura I saw around you the day you left to come home.” She scowled. “And you should have told me. All those texts and phone calls, and you never said a word!”

“You knew what was happening to me,” Isobel shot back. “You knew I was a channel like your grandmother and never said a word.”

“I couldn’t.” Amelia’s expression begged for understanding. “My grandmother forbid it. No one can say anything until you start to remember and accept things on your own. The only loophole is if your life is in immediate danger. If you had called,” she crossed her arms, “and told me what was going on, I would have come sooner.”

“I didn’t want to worry you.”

“Well that plan worked out well, didn’t it? I was worried out of my mind the whole way here.”

An old woman walked into the room with a cane. She wore a loose dress and her short, curly white hair stood out against the deep black of her skin. It seemed at odds with the barely lined face it framed. Amelia turned with a smile. “Isobel, this is my grandmother, Rose. Grandma, this is Isobel.”

Rose stared for a long moment. Long enough that Isobel started to wonder if she had pancake batter on her face. The old woman moved until she stood directly in front of her. “You, child, are going to be a powerful channel.”

Isobel blinked. “How can you tell that?”

“I can see it. You will be stronger than me. My, my, the power that radiates around you. A perfect instrument of the Higher Powers. I can only imagine what it will be like when you embrace it and know how to use it.”

Isobel shook her head as the fear ingrained into her since childhood rose up. “I don’t think I can.”

“Oh yes, you can,” Rose said, her voice strong and sure. She pointed her cane at Isobel. “And you will. I will teach you. Amelia should have trusted her instincts and brought us together sooner. Or that dark angel of yours should have found another like me. It would have made things so much easier for you.” She shook her head and made a clucking sound as she walked to the island and sat down. She fixed her eyes on Isobel again. “No matter. That can’t be undone. I’m here now and you, child, will learn.”

Somehow, Isobel got the feeling she would be doing just as the old woman said. Rose shifted on her chair. “Once I get my breakfast in me I’m going to make a trip upstairs.”

Isaac glanced sharply at her, a worried look in his eyes. Rose met his gaze. “Don’t you give me that look. This demon needs to be taken down a peg or two so I can teach this child without his interference.” She cackled, mirth filling her eyes. “He sure got a surprise last night. Thought he could mess with my mind and Amelia’s. Ha!” Rose slapped her palm on the island top. “Guess he wasn’t expecting me. Thinking he could come after my granddaughter like that. Well he learned good, he did. Didn’t hardly creep down the stairs all night after that.”

Isobel couldn’t help but smile at the feisty old woman sitting in her kitchen. Amelia helped her serve up the plates of food. “So how come you and Amelia can see auras and I can’t?”

“Amelia and I are auras. Different channels have different gifts. If a channel is part of a hereditary line, then they usually inherit one of the gifts of their line.”

“So what is my gift?” Isobel took a sip of orange juice.

Rose smiled. “What do you see?”

“I don’t know.” Isobel shrugged. “I’m not sure I ‘see’ anything.”

“You’ve never seen anything unusual apart from Xapar’s influence?”

Isobel stared at the table for a long time. “I’ve seen ghosts.” She looked at Rose. “Does that count?”

Rose nodded. “You are a spirit. It seems you have inherited your mother’s ability to speak with the spirits of the dead.”

Isobel snorted. “Great. You and Amelia can read auras, and I see dead people.”